Chapter 1 Inception

While the Creation Goddess Leah was engrossed in her studies, deep within the Dream Dimension universe, in the dark and chaotic ancient prison, an undercurrent was also quietly surging.

For ten thousand years, absolute silence had reigned here. All celestial bodies remained as still as if frozen in ice, devoid of any life changes or galactic evolution. The river of time seemed to have forgotten this dark domain, allowing it to remain in cold stillness, preserved as it was at the moment the seal was erected.

However, this “freezing” was merely an illusion, a deception in the eyes of short-lived mortals. On a timescale of a hundred centuries, this prison had never truly been at peace. The ancient terror being suppressed was constantly trying to break through the prison's barriers, repeatedly reaching the warning boundaries of the dark abyss. The wardens responsible for guarding the prison waged a war lasting ten thousand years—though most of these battles took place in unobservable dimensions. To uninformed outsiders, all that could be seen were the occasional brightening and dimming of solitary stars, or the sudden disappearance of a patch of space dust.

A star located on the dark boundary hung silently and alone, without any celestial companions nearby. Its orange-red surface churned with towering flames, and jets of plasma defied the celestial body's own gravity, erupting from the sea of fire and piercing into the cold, dark space like countless dazzling spears of light. However, the light emitted by the star could hardly illuminate the distance in this universe. Less than half an astronomical unit away, an eerie darkness slowly writhed like some sort of mollusk or sludge. It had no physical form, nor did it emit any gravity or radiation. Yet, the star's brilliance would abruptly halt before this writhing darkness, vanishing as if completely swallowed.

Suddenly, the writhing darkness underwent some changes. The originally aimless and scattered “sludge” began to become ordered and concentrated, advancing towards the dark boundary. The orange star suspended in this region reacted instantly, its brightness sharply increasing, even its stellar classification explosively rising. The orange sea of fire turned into a blazing blue-white inferno within a millisecond, and a long wall formed by gravity and warped space blocked the surrounding darkness.

The movement of the dark “sludge” was impeded. After a period of stalemate, the anomalies gradually subsided.

But not all anomalies would subside. Less than twenty thousand light-years away from this outpost, another star failed to withstand the surge of the black tide. Warped space was brutally torn apart, and a destructive force invaded the interior of that ancient celestial body. The star's surface was suddenly covered with ominous black lines, and it shattered along those lines. Some rune-like entities flashed briefly during the star's disintegration, then everything was swallowed by darkness, leaving no trace.

In more distant regions of space, ripples of information spread among the solitary stars. Languages incomprehensible to mortals leaped and flowed between the celestial bodies like gentle breezes.

"Outpost n-66 extinguished, sectors 73 to 76 failed, inner defense reduced to 32%, probability of containment failure increased to 68%."

"We have lost two-thirds of the inner outposts, and the remaining outposts are in poor condition. The middle outposts are also being affected. In the past few days, more than twenty waves of anomalous energy pulses have breached the inner defense and directly attacked our middle nodes."

"The frequency of attacks is constantly accelerating. The 'Prisoner's' activity is rising. It has awakened."

"Situation unfavorable." "Situation unfavorable." "Situation unfavorable."

After a very brief silence, the interstellar whisper resounded again.

"The good news is, we can finally confirm the existence of 'reinforcements.'"

"A series of unidentified facilities can already be observed rapidly forming on the boundary of the dark abyss. The energy fluctuations they generate are consistent with the drones previously observed..."

"One of the facilities is releasing special pulses of our brethren. It should be a relay device."

"Although the details are still unclear, one of our brethren in the outside world should be trying to establish contact with us."

"The energy burst that occurred deep within the cage should also be related to this—that energy burst directly weakened the 'Prisoner' by at least one-fifth."

"But it also led to a surge in the 'Prisoner's' activity, and after that, some of the 'Prisoner's' behavior showed a high degree of logic."

After a few seconds of silence, a more ethereal voice joined the interstellar whisper: "Insufficient data, unable to make an accurate judgment, but according to the sixth clause of the ancient covenant, we should regard the recent series of changes as the signal for the opening of the 'Final Battle.'"

The thoughts from the other stars stirred for a moment, then several voices paid their respects to the ethereal voice: "Warden."

The voice called Warden continued: "...The final moment is coming. Regardless of whether reinforcements exist, the breakthrough of the inner defense is imminent. Night Watchers, prepare for battle."

Not a single voice objected. All the Night Watchers expressed their determination at the first moment—even though they were well aware that without reinforcements, without the support of the Creation Goddess, the Star People's own strength was simply insufficient to directly confront the Lord of Mad Whispers. This "Final Battle" was very likely to become a complete extermination of the race. However, from the day they chose to stay in this domain, they had already prepared for this.

After issuing the order to prepare for the final battle, the Warden's voice continued: "Second order: Attempt to establish contact with the facilities outside the prison."

This time, a voice of doubt finally emerged: "Warden, exchanging information with the outside world is very dangerous. It may weaken the sealing strength of the dark abyss—"

"According to the fifth clause of the ancient covenant, when containment is about to fail and the outside world shows a tendency for advanced mental communication, the information shielding should be lifted and contact established. Moreover, we have already detected special pulses of our brethren from those facilities. We cannot ignore them no matter what."

"Then, it shall be according to your order."

In the dark universe, the whispers between the stars finally subsided again, and a cold, deathly silence once again enveloped the entire domain.

But a few minutes later, a star located at the very edge of this dark domain suddenly increased its brightness. Then, countless crystal-clear lines separated from the star's surface. These crystal lines extended along the solar flares above the photosphere into space, and quickly condensed into a solid form in space. In the layers of crystals, a luminous figure formed by energy clouds and bright nodes was faintly visible.

A moment later, a shuttle-shaped starship made of crystal appeared above the star. It hovered in the star's light for a few seconds, then transformed into a stream of light, flying in the opposite direction of the dark abyss.

After several successive warps, it finally reached its destination. That dark and chaotic anomalous domain had been left far behind, and before it lay a vast and boundless sea of stars.

Although optical observation was difficult to achieve, the starship could still detect a magnificent structure built by drones standing in that sea of stars, and among that magnificent structure was the largest antenna facility. The special pulses from their brethren were constantly being released through the relay of that antenna.

As long as it continued to advance, it could leave this terrifying dark abyss prison and plunge into the embrace of the orderly universe. However, the shuttle-shaped crystal starship stopped at this distance. It knew that once it, as a Night Watcher, crossed this line, an extremely serious loophole would appear in the defense of the dark abyss prison. Exceeding the threshold of information leakage would allow the Lord of Mad Whispers to directly project its power back into the orderly universe.

Establishing contact with the outside world, this was already the permitted limit.

The shuttle-shaped starship came to a standstill, anchoring itself with the dark abyss as a base point. Then, it raised its bow, and the crystalline structure at the front of the ship changed like flowing water, quickly forming a series of spreading structures like sails. These crystal sails bathed in the brilliant starlight from the orderly universe, shimmering in space.

The starship carefully adjusted its angle, ensuring that each sail accurately faced the drone structure in the distance. Then, it used the minimum power to make its first call:

"This is Night Watcher. The dark abyss prison has received the signal. Greetings, brethren."

This greeting crossed the vast space between the stars. After being amplified and relayed by the drone network, it was sent almost without delay to the information processing center of the Crystalline Core Research Station. Asuman, as the highest priority member of the listening group, had been maintaining a 24-hour uninterrupted connection, so this greeting entered his mind at the first moment.

Even with the Star People's unwavering will, Asuman felt a moment of disorientation, even suspecting that he was hallucinating.

However, the recording equipment clearly proved the authenticity of this communication.

"Signal received, signal received!" Gordon, the ancient giant who was on duty in the information center with Asuman, also heard this greeting. This giant, as steadfast as a rock, actually jumped up from his seat, nearly knocking over the things at hand. He immediately connected to the entire listening group's communication channel and simultaneously called Salaman in the Hub Star System, "We have received direct communication from the dark abyss! Repeat, it's direct communication from inside the dark abyss!"

On the other side, Asuman had completely calmed down. Based on the signal he had received, this Star Person fine-tuned the frequency of the drone relay station to enhance the signal quality, and sent his reply: "This is Asuman, Crystalline Core Research Station listening group. It's good to hear the voices of our brethren again."

"We too—no one thought we would hear the voices of our brethren again. The outside world now..."

"Please listen to me," Asuman interrupted before the other party could finish speaking, "Immediately notify the other sentinels. The Creation Goddess has returned, and we will launch a glorious and decisive counterattack. So before the day of the counterattack arrives, be sure to preserve your strength and do not directly engage the Lord of Mad Whispers! We will need your support then!"

Then Asuman turned to Gordon, who was busy at the communication console: "Gordon, how is the Hub? Have you contacted the Goddess?"

"We've contacted Legion Commander Salaman. The Legion Commander says Mother is doing her homework, only half a question left, and she'll be right over when she's done!"

"...Um, tell the Goddess not to rush too much, the communication is stable, and we've already conveyed the important things, let her focus on writing..."