Chapter 1257 — Through the Explorer's Eyes

Kamael nodded, not asking in detail what the puppet judged to be "harmful," for such material circulated openly within the Divine Authority Council, sourced from several of the Council's senior advisors. In the "List of Harmful Things in the Divine Realm" were included, but not limited to, self-moving matter, chaotic products of light and shadow and color, activated shadows, and anything bearing the above characteristics. Essentially, anything that could not possibly exist in the real world, that could inflict mental contamination on ordinary people and tended to spread actively, counted as "harmful things" likely to breed in the divine realm.

His gaze returned to the portal's side, to the mages responsible for controlling the Explorer, and fixed on the holographic projection floating among them—the Explorer had by now left the area directly visible from the portal, and those on "this side" could only judge the puppet's surroundings through these holographic projections.

He saw a very vast space, most of whose ground was paved with enormous stone blocks. He saw grand, towering buildings in the distance, their outer walls gleaming with an iron-gray luster, their tops seemingly adorned with polished spears, swords, and shields. These sights made many present think involuntarily of the scenes described by the War God's followers:

In the domain of the God of War, palaces and cities of incomparable magnificence stood upon a land of giant stone. The finest weapons and armor in the world were decorations seen everywhere in that city. Valiant warriors could enjoy deathless combat in the War God's arena, and feast through the night on fine food and wine in the War God's palace. Everyone had palaces and temples, and an eternal life full of glory.

Now they had seen the land heaped with giant stone, the iron palaces, and the weapons and armor adorning them—and if the Explorer continued onward, it would likely also find the arena and the feasting halls of food and wine described in the myths.

"So vast... truly just as they described it in the texts..." A Typhon mage stared in some astonishment at the images the Explorer sent back, murmuring involuntarily under his breath.

"Of course it would be the same, because the War God's divine realm was 'depicted' by His followers in the first place," Windsor Mabel said evenly, her gaze never leaving the holographic projection beside the portal. Then she sighed. "Vast, yet empty... not a single soul. Could it be that the War God ordinarily wanders about in such an empty city?"

"Perhaps it only became like this after the War God fell," Kamael said thoughtfully. "While He lived, this place might well have been lively."

"A host of imagined phantoms keeping company with an imagined god? And every day there's nothing to do but fight and drink..." A Cecil magitech technician muttered, shaking his head. "That doesn't sound like a wonderful life..."

"It's all gray and murky," Windsor Mabel said then, frowning slightly. "Control team, can you have the Explorer observe the sky of the divine realm?"

"Of course. Adjusting the viewpoint—the Explorer is raising its head."

With the control mage's words, the image in the holographic projection began to shift, and the "sky" shrouding the divine realm gradually filled most of the frame.

A sky boundless, chaotic, and profound, with no sun, moon, or stars to be seen, filled only with endless faint light, appeared before Kamael and Windsor. And as the Explorer adjusted its focal point, they saw countless tiny drifting things emerge in that vast, chaotic sky.

Those things seemed wrapped in cloud and mist, or like shattered phantoms moving in swarms behind the cloud layers. They were evidently orbiting the divine realm, and possessed a vast overall structure—yet with the Explorer's limited field of view and resolution, the technicians stationed outside the portal had no way of making out what those things actually were.

But Kamael and Windsor Mabel knew what they were.

"That must be what the 'senior advisors' mentioned..." Lady Windsor murmured softly. "Those things orbiting the divine realm..."

"The remains of the ancient gods, the remains of the divine realm, the remains of civilizations, the echoes of schools of thought long since extinguished—those things churn endlessly in the 'deep sea,' and will not dissipate completely for hundreds of thousands of years," Kamael said in a deep voice, low and resonant. "It really is just as the senior advisors said... Living in the divine realm, one need only look up to see those things."

"But it's still not what I imagined," Windsor could not help saying. "I thought there would be something on a larger scale..."

Before the legendary mage had finished speaking, she heard the mages beside the portal suddenly cry out in alarm. She looked up at once, and there in the holographic projection a vast shadow was slowly moving past—

It was a shattered remnant, which seemed once to have been part of the structure of some palace dome, yet its tangled lines and irregular edges matched no architecture in Kamael's or Windsor's memory. To its edge there seemed to cling something broken and fragmented—it looked like an arm, or perhaps a withered, rotting wing—but whatever it was, it was enough to unsettle the heart and draw a cry of alarm.

The enormous wreck drifted slowly across the sky, perhaps a thousand meters across, and it looked so close to the dome of the God of War's divine realm that the explorers could make out some of its finer structures—it floated in from the edge of the frame, slowly, taking up nearly a third of the entire holographic projection, then drifted off into the distance, leaving the mortals by the portal with only a twisted, uncanny black silhouette that provoked endless speculation.

How long passed, he could not say, before Kamael's voice came low and deep, startling Windsor out of her stunned daze: "...What you asked for—something on a larger scale—has arrived."

"That is..." Windsor drew a soft breath. "That is also wreckage orbiting the divine realm?"

"Evidently," Kamael said gravely. "It seems this wreckage comes in all sizes, near and far... like irregular foam drifting on the ocean, and the so-called divine realms are simply floating in this sea of foam."

"I had heard descriptions of this from the senior advisors before, but seeing it with my own eyes is truly something else," Windsor Mapel said with a bitter smile. "That thing gave me a real fright."

"Lady Windsor, we have only seen it through the explorers' eyes—we are still a fair distance from truly 'seeing it with our own eyes,'" Kamael said, looking at the legendary Typhon mage, his tone solemn and serious. "The next step, I fear, is that we really must 'see for ourselves' over there."

(End of this chapter)