Chapter 293: The Unbelievable Truth—The World We're In Is...
With a violent tremor, the entire world seemed to spin upside down.
The girls running for their lives desperately tried to keep their balance.
Amidst this sensation, they continued running forward.
Now was the time to fight for their lives, second by second.
"Be careful, Le Fay!"
"Thank you"
Le Fay, who had nearly fallen into a spatial rift, thanked Irina for pulling her back.
The two continued their escape, fleeing this heavenly realm.
Just as they were about to completely occupy this space, a few seraphs who refused to surrender drove their mad lord to destroy the World Tree supporting this realm, causing this heaven to collapse.
So, far behind the fleeing group, they could see a black hole-like sphere pulling in everything around it.
Whether light, time, or space itself—everything was being drawn in, swallowed by the void, turning into nothingness.
Come to think of it, hadn't the gods anticipated this might happen from the beginning?
Of course, it was somewhat anticipated, but the battlefield is ever-changing, and plans are bound to fall behind to some extent.
Initially, some angels were reluctant to conspire with the Primordial Gods, already dissatisfied with some of their Lord's actions but unable to resist.
Now, when they intended to cooperate in seizing this Celestial Realm, who would have thought such an extreme move would be made so suddenly?
"Whew~ Finally made it."
They had arrived at the Celestial Gate leading to the Central Celestial Realm. The space here was relatively stable, so there was no need to run desperately anymore, and Irina breathed a sigh of relief.
At the same time, she gazed back at the collapsing world, trying to spot familiar faces among the countless figures rushing toward them.
Were they safe?
"Irina, over there!!!"
Le Fay pointed excitedly in a direction, indicating that the two people they were looking for were there.
Upon seeing the two, she waved to get their attention.
Suddenly, Le Fay's pupils slightly contracted.
In her vision, the scene of destruction seemed abnormal—like a black hole, it flickered with what looked like static?
Like data?
But it vanished after a few flashes.
She glanced at the others, but their reactions suggested they hadn't noticed anything unusual.
Or perhaps, in this world, such phenomena were normal when space was collapsing?
But during the final battle between humans and gods, when space was destroyed, this didn't happen, did it?
Could it be that such phenomena only occur when the World Tree is destroyed?
"Irina, did you see that? The collapsing space had that, that kind of..."
"What kind?"
"Well, you know... Have you seen the movie The Matrix?"
"No, I haven't."
"Ah? You haven't? Well, it's like the collapse of space resembles a virtual world in novels or sci-fi movies... Never mind, forget I said anything."
After all, the image had only flashed a few times before disappearing, and Irina looked completely bewildered, so explaining further would be pointless.
Thus, when Serafall and Rossweisse arrived beside them, Le Fay said nothing more.
Perhaps it was just her imagination.
In the blink of an eye, several more days passed. The group was heading toward another building not far from the Akasha Chamber in the Central Celestial Realm—their assigned residence.
As they walked, they could see the nearby arena, which still lay in ruins like a wasteland.
Qin Shi Huang's Mechanical Body had already been transported away by his people.
They also noticed that the number of gods guarding the surroundings was dwindling, clearly having been dispatched to support the front lines.
The main purpose of these gods guarding this place was to protect the Akasha Chamber, preventing it from being seized by the Primordial Gods.
The surroundings also showed signs of destruction, caused by occasional infiltrations and battles initiated by the Primordial God's followers.
Upon arriving at their residence and entering, they immediately saw Sefaira, the shrine maiden from another world.
She seemed unaware of their return, still intently focused on an extremely complex magical formula on the ground.
She had been continuously researching, attempting to activate this formula to establish a connection with their world.
Of course, this time it wasn't meant for direct transportation—to avoid another transmission failure—but rather to see if communication was possible.
For instance, if the formula connected to that world but the exact location remained uncertain, they could attempt to transmit their voices. If someone heard and responded, they could confirm whether it was indeed their world.
However, a major problem had emerged: since the end of the Ninth Round battle, the formula, which had previously shown some response though it was unclear if it had connected, now showed no reaction at all.
The drawn magic circle had become mere scribbles, like pointless graffiti.
"Take a break, Sefaira~"
Irina stepped forward with concern.
"Ah? You're back? I'm really sorry, I'm so useless, I haven't been of any help at all~"
Sefaira began to blame herself.
"Enough, how many times do I have to tell you? Don't be like this~"
Irina said with slight exasperation.
"Huh? Miss Sefaira, hasn't it activated?"
Le Fay expressed mild surprise.
"What activation? It's just like before, no reaction at all~"
"But, but I can see it glowing"
Le Fay murmured in slight bewilderment, and the glow was somewhat peculiar too—it appeared to be composed of incomprehensible data-like light.
When she described what she saw, the others were equally perplexed, as none of them could see it.
After further attempts, they discovered that as Sefaira activated the formula, the data-like glow in Le Fay's vision grew increasingly intense.
"We still can't see anything. Is it really glowing, Le Fay?"
"I... in my eyes, it's definitely getting brighter"
Le Fay began to wonder if her mind was playing tricks on her, causing her to hallucinate.
Was she so desperate to return that she was seeing things?
"Miss Le Fay, can you see anything else unusual?"
Sefaira inquired.
Though in Le Fay's eyes, Sefaira was activating the formula, from Sefaira's perspective, she was merely going through futile motions—the formula hadn't successfully activated at all. But now she held a sliver of hope that it might have actually worked.
Otherwise, the energy she was channeling shouldn't have simply vanished into thin air.
"Hmm, well—huh? Aah!!!"
In Le Fay's vision, an abnormal change occurred—a silver-mirror-like sphere emerged from the magic circle, rapidly expanding to nearly the size of the entire formation.
Simultaneously, the intense fluctuations of data-like light became even more pronounced.
Everything in Le Fay's sight, including Irina and the others, began exhibiting the same phenomenon.
But was this silver mirror sphere alone normal? Was it... real?
So, without quite knowing why, she suddenly reached out and touched it.
In an instant, everything in her vision vanished, turning into data? Including herself?
Then, consciousness became muddled, and finally, darkness fell.
It was unclear how much time had passed when the darkness began to lift.
To be precise, it was Le Fay opening her eyes.
"What's wrong with me?"
She muttered this while rubbing her eyes, as if still groggy from sleep.
When she took a careful look around, she froze in place as if struck by lightning!
Wh-what in the world is going on here!!!