Star Empire

"The end?!"

Kriz immediately turned his attention to the picture, to the clearly visible huge gap at the edge of the "radiating golden flower" that should have been bright and complete. However, his pair of eyes could usually brush off layers of explanations from the surface of anything. His eyes were lost in the darkness, which seemed to be no different from the same background. The huge perfect circle of darkness is like a bloody mouth in the void, swallowing up all the information that comes into contact with it.

"What is...what?" Kriz looked away with difficulty, as if he was trying to pull out his legs that had been sunk in the thickest mud.

"That piece of "missing darkness"? We don't know what it is. Before launching a general attack on it, the "imperial consciousness" that was completely confused... let's call the existence that controlled the imperial entity at that time. The imperial consciousness thinks that It could be a huge fault zone - you'll learn more about fault zones later."

"Fault zones can be roughly divided into two categories. The first type is the expansion type fault zone, and the second type is the convergence type fault zone. If the convergence type fault zone is viewed from a distance, the person who sends the line of sight may get something like this The feedback - a missing darkness, a bottomless swamp."

"This is in line with common sense and logic, and also in line with the observation results...if there is no "Quadrant Continent" of Σ civilization."

"Quadrant Continent...what is that?"

"The superior node of the World Branch Zenith Constellation - it manages countless world branches just like the World Branch Zenith Constellation manages countless world veins."

"..."

"It may be a bit unimaginable. But it doesn't matter, our focus is not here now. What we want to focus on is why it appeared in that darkness, how it did it, and... What could that darkness be?”

"It is impossible for a normal creation of order to survive in a high-purity death tide environment for so long. The memories formed by various previous actions have penetrated into the deepest parts of the empire - no order entity is 100% immune to the invasion of death tide. At least, from Starting from the scope we know - no matter how clever or powerful the creation is, it can only weaken the erosion of the death tide as much as possible."

"The darkness that looks like a convergent fault zone...if it is indeed formed by the pollution of death tide or the compression and condensation of polluted death tide aggregates, then even the Quadrant Continent and the decisive battle flagship cannot be completely immune to its damage—— It is even less possible to continue to withstand such damage for tens of billions of years."

"So...what is that darkness?"

"According to current speculation... it may be the "reverse body" of some kind of meme, some kind of extremely powerful giant antimeme that can swallow up and block extraordinary information."

"'Meme' is a carrier of information transmission, and it has the property of outward diffusion and propagation. The property of antimeme is exactly the opposite. As for such a powerful antimemetic entity, did Σ directly discover and directly utilize it, or did Σ ΣBy "supplying energy", ordinary antimemetic entities with such properties have expanded to this extent after a long period of growth..."

"The empire is currently uncertain." At this point, the teacher's voice paused for a while.

"After all... the empire didn't even have the wisdom and logic at that time, let alone study these phenomena. And by the time the empire had the ability to study those phenomena... the samples would have been gone."

"Huh? How come... something is the other way around - the ritual is gathering something!!"

"The biggest controversial point arising from the Star Transformation Ceremony...is right here, Kryze."

"After the outer constraint structure of the Void Fierce Sun is penetrated and exploded, the powerful information torrent deep in the Fierce Sun will erupt directly to the outside world. This series of processes is essentially an extremely intense "external expansion" process. If it is expanding There are too many other large-scale rituals that can be used to make use of this ubiquitous storm in the process of fighting against foreign enemies. After the "Star Shift" ritual took effect, it actually had the opposite effect to this storm. The storm is the driving force behind the storm. Information spreads outward, and the ritual itself gathers information.”

"so……?"

"So, some studies believe that from the moment the scream that pierced the entire empire began, from the moment endless hatred enveloped the entire empire, from the ignition of the "Star Shift" ceremony, Σ civilization intervened and changed the empire. development trajectory.”

"But didn't I say before that the academic community believes that Σ has completely collapsed and no longer has wisdom and logic?"

"From the outside, this is indeed the case, and there is no problem. Whether it is from the creations scattered throughout the void, the still active fleet, or elsewhere, the empire has not discovered the remnants of the Σ civilization. Creation has clear intelligence and logic. Therefore, this conclusion still stands."

"However, scholars who stand on the opposite side of these speculations also have quite strong factual records as evidence - they believe that Σ may have no longer possessed intelligence and logic at that time."

"They put forward other ideas: the logic and wisdom that drives these actions do not necessarily come from those creations, but from themselves - within the scope of our understanding, Σ civilization has dominated the void for more than five trillion years, which has already Enough for them to carve their influence into the deep layers of the environment, these parts that have not yet been observed and studied by us may be able to push some things to change in the direction that the former owners of these influences wanted.”

"Σ may have formulated more profound and secretive plans. They may be clever enough to bypass these gaps even when the connection is severed. It is also possible that some other derivatives played an additional role. "

"Other derivatives?"

"Pay attention - some fleet blocks will "disappear", but look carefully, what do you see?"

"What do you see?" Kriz looked seriously at the stars in the sky that surrounded the endless continent. The vast large-scale grid composed of white, purple, and gold light spots was separated by nine days. Above and below the vast blood mist, many "feathers" will disappear mysteriously - there is no clear attack disturbance around them, but

"Huh?" Kriz frowned. He discovered that before those fleets disappeared, their surroundings would become blurry. And they did not simply "disappear", but rather seemed to be "thrown out" from the battlefield by some extremely powerful force.

"There were some disturbances that covered those fleets, and then they disappeared, looking like they were thrown out. The source of these disturbances was...those giant black domes!!"

"Timeline shattering and splitting attacks. They are standard on the "World Branch Zenith" of Σ Civilization."

"Time attacks are not uncommon. But timeline-shattering and splitting attacks are different from almost all ordinary time attacks. Under normal circumstances, an individual's own time develops like a line. If the "number of changes" is the positive direction, then no matter how this line changes - whether it goes straight, or there will be some splitting or aggregation, or even breakage, these changes will appear on the paper, that is, the length of the line is different. Now, they are still drawn on paper."

"And what the Timeline Shatter Attack does is like throwing all the threads right off the page."

"this"

"It's not too late for you to learn the specific content later. In short, in this environment, the successful implementation of timeline fragmentation means that it is possible for Σ to release a backup of civilization "outside time" of the entire order. Or other preservation plans have been prepared outside of this huge rupture. When the huge death wave disaster breaks out in the depths of Σ, these backups may also be contaminated. Of course, it is also possible to survive with the help of the huge rupture effect, or to mediate Between the two - we are not sure. But it cannot be denied that this phenomenon can indeed lead to more inferences."

".So teacher, what is the strong evidence you mentioned before?"

"The "Empire" as a whole decides that the time to launch a general attack on the Quadrant Continent is consistent with the time when the "weight effect" of the Void Sun and the general flagship takes effect. The effect of the "Star Shift" ceremony is exactly the same as the effect of the "Dead Light" of the Quadrant Continent. On the contrary. The "dead light" accurately erased the deepest and most critical mark left by the Σ civilization on the star civilization, and accurately destroyed the technological ultimate deduction module."

"After destroying the "mark", which is the simplified information control code left deep in the star's life form, the subsequent effects of the mark being destroyed "exactly" offset the inconsistencies in the past 27 billion years. The negative impact caused by "foreign technology" during intermittent surges."

"Consistent and coincident. If this is a coincidence, then there may be something wrong with the coincidence itself."

"Yes, Kriz, so these "happens" have become strong evidence of "deliberateness"."

"It's... a little hard to accept for a moment."

"It doesn't matter, we still have time."

As if in response to this sentence.

The foundations of the brilliant sun and the majestic tower were pulled out and burned.

The accumulation left over tens of billions of years has experienced tragic collapse. However, although the magnificent tower fell, from a longer-term perspective, the empire... the star civilization was finally "recognized". This last push was so painful that it took the survivors tens of billions of years and a long recovery period to be able to walk without being locked in by the pain in their bodies.

A long lull begins - a time when everything seems to "stop".

The sun returned to its original position, but the scorching sunlight that once spread wantonly in the void no longer existed. The "polarized knife" disappeared. The gentle light caressed the body that was covered with crystals and wounds because it could not adapt to the erosion of crystal energy, and used the powerful weight effect and time to slowly heal the huge damage caused by the huge fall.

The remaining souls who are still active and have been pulled back and reorganized from the chaotic "information soup" by the strong pull of the weight effect have a new chapter in their story. Although... the beginning of this story is to collect as much as possible the wreckage that was once scattered everywhere over a long period of time. But as the souls slowly recover and re-stabilize, the fragments of past history that the sun's rays blend into the depths of these souls are constantly revealed - red reality, dilution, internal differences, powerful enemies outside, no hope... once The endless negative factors have been eliminated too much.

"At least... it's enough for everyone to "survive"."

"For the next billions, and possibly tens of billions of years after correction...the environment is calm."

"Is it because of... previous actions?"

"I should say - yes."

"The territory of the empire expanded and contracted sharply, and the powerful bombing of the Σ Quadrant continent destroyed a large number of order structures, and large areas in the void were "empty"."

"It takes a long time for the empty part to regain its original order and density. In this way, this huge white area forms a vast natural barrier, which is enough to hold back external disasters - such as those coming from the depths of the void. A highly aggressive entity is either a metaphysical cleavage body or a fault zone. And the high-intensity solar wind that the blazing sun has continuously ejected for tens of billions of years has also formed a domain in the void that belongs to her and the empire."

"This is the "Fire Sun Wind Field". It is similar to the solar wind field in the home world, but the Void Fierce Sun is a giant sun at the information level."

"The giant sun at the information level..."

"...The chronology of decision-making is very long. The first half of it has ups and downs, but the second half doesn't have much story."

"However, just like the wilderness after being burned by fire - it is vast and desolate, but it also contains new vitality..."

"While continuously recycling the empire's creations scattered in the void, the souls of the past have rediscovered themselves. With the encouragement of time, they have regained the courage to understand and embrace the world. In other words - the souls that were once determined to be destroyed Star civilization has the possibility of starting again."

"Don't underestimate this change. You are not deeply involved in the world, and you may think that it is very simple to make changes and make trade-offs. But with the accumulation of time, if you reach your own future, then you will find that the reality is not in this way."

"The various malignant symptoms that occur due to the loss of the simplified information control code and the erosion of the body and soul by extraordinary information are weakened with the continuous correction of the weight effect. The surviving souls and the remaining consciousnesses in the fleet matrix and evolution matrix cluster Together, we use the technology that has not been lost to synthesize new lives as much as possible. As the number of new lives gradually increases, new goals are also set - the empire must once again move towards glory, relying on its own strength. "

"This is...the Chronicle of the Expedition, a new era of prosperity for the empire?"

"No, Kriz. Quite the opposite."

"The current empire does still use the expedition as its chronological name, and the current empire is indeed prosperous. But - this does not mean that the entire era is like this."

"Once upon a time, the Expedition Chronicle, as a name for an era, was directly linked to a word."

"…Which word?"

"The sky is dark."