Chapter 1256: From the Explorer’s Perspective

At exactly 12:15 PM, the final set of constraint rings around the portal completed their preheating sequence.

In the central hall of the Covenant Fortress, runes danced across the massive alloy pedestal. A radiant flow of magical energy coursed through energy conduits and arcane metal tracks, continuously feeding into the curved metal arms above the device. The circular ring, etched with intricate runes and crystalline structures, now hovered at the very top of the portal apparatus. Within the cage-like structure formed by the ring, the pedestal, and the metal arms, a twisted spatial field several meters in diameter was gradually taking shape.

This warped space resembled a perfect sphere, seemingly filled with some crystalline substance. Light from afar bent and refracted across its surface, conjuring bizarre, shifting illusions. It looked like a crystal orb or a flawlessly polished metal sphere—but in truth, it had no physical form at all. The spherical surface was an optical anomaly caused by spatial folding; the flickering light patterns traced out a “viewpoint” from another dimension.

Kamail and Windsor Mapel stood watching the colossal portal device, the low hum echoing throughout the hall. All protective systems were online, and the assembled psionic singers had gathered beside the portal. A technician clad in heavy protective robes inscribed with deep-sea runes approached the two commanders, reporting that all systems were ready.

The moment to give the order had arrived. Windsor Mapel turned to Kamail.

“You should give the command,” the legendary Typhon mage said solemnly. “For the rebels of a thousand years past, for the pioneers who fell on the path of exploration.”

Kamail met Windsor’s gaze. He knew he could not refuse. After a brief pause, he nodded slightly and looked toward the operators standing by.

“Switch the ‘Humanity Barrier’ to active broadcast mode. Psionic singers, begin resonance,” the rebel from the ancient Gorgondor Empire announced loudly, his steady voice reverberating through the hall. “Activate the portal!”

As his words fell, a deep “buzz” filled the chamber, quickly rising in pitch from the base of the portal. The immense energy, long accumulated, was now channeled into the War God fragment buried beneath the hall. Through a complex series of conversions and projections, it was released into the portal’s surface structure. The energy surge was so powerful it flickered the hall’s lighting; the glow from the magic crystal lamps dimmed and brightened erratically. Everyone felt the hairs on their skin stand on end, a cold shiver running through their nerves—

Then, balance was swiftly restored. The carefully engineered load system absorbed the initial energy spike, while the cooling system beneath the device began venting the heat outside. Dozens of heat vents around the fortress opened simultaneously, releasing steam that rose alongside distant magical glimmers into the sky. Before Kamail’s eyes, the spherical “orb” at the portal’s center stretched and solidified into a perfect circular “mirror,” revealing a magnificent, radiant vista within.

All eyes in the hall were drawn to the dazzling scene reflected in the mirror. Instinctively, everyone’s nerves tensed. The commander of the security team was the first to break the silence, shouting, “Protection teams, check for divine contamination! All personnel, monitor your mental stability!”

Responses came swiftly from various teams: “No signs of divine erosion or mental pollution detected!” “Visual and auditory sensors normal; protective filters show no anomalies!” “‘Humanity Barrier’ load stable; active broadcast ongoing!”

The bright glow around Kamail had nearly frozen since the activation began, but now the arcane light resumed flowing. He longed to breathe a sigh of relief—but he no longer had lungs. Instead, he flickered twice in rapid succession and turned to Windsor Mapel. “The first step is a success.”

“Yes… we really opened the portal!” Windsor said, staring in awe at the image within the mirror, unable to hide her excitement. “Could that… be the War God’s divine realm?”

“The gate is open, but whether the other side is truly the divine realm remains to be verified,” Kamail replied calmly, helping Windsor regain her composure. “As planned, send in the first ‘Explorer.’”

Windsor nodded immediately and turned to the waiting technicians. “Bring the Explorer forward.”

Moments later, several technicians approached the portal, followed by a peculiar automaton barely over a meter tall. It was a self-governing construct made of brass, with a rounded body and multiple long, jointed legs resembling those of an arthropod. Its copper shell was inscribed not only with magical runes but also deep-sea glyphs and crystalline lens structures. It had a head mounted on a long neck and three “arms” extending from its shell, all driven by intricate mechanical linkages and a core magical mechanism.

Kamail’s gaze lingered on the automaton. Windsor smiled beside him. “A pinnacle of traditional magic engineering. Maybe not as powerful or cheap to produce as magitech devices, but it has its uses in situations like this.”

“I see traces of iron automaton engineering,” Kamail murmured. “Its joint connectors are the Mohr-76 model.”

“Yes, we did learn a few things from Gondor’s iron man technology,” Windsor said with a faint pride in her voice before raising her hand. “Explorer, enter the gate!”

Under the watchful, anxious eyes of everyone present, the brass automaton stepped forward. Its arthropod legs clicked rhythmically as it fearlessly approached the softly glowing circular “lens.” As it stepped through, ripples spread across the mirror’s surface, and the Explorer seemed to pass through a watery veil. Its form vanished from this side and appeared on the other.

Once the Explorer had fully crossed, Windsor turned to the control mages by the portal. “Can we still track it?”

“Yes, Master Windsor,” one replied promptly. A magical projection hovered beside him, clearly displaying the Explorer’s viewpoint. The first thing visible was a vast stone plaza and, in the distance, grand monumental buildings. “The signal passed through the portal successfully. I have a clear view here.”

Kamail observed everything carefully and asked, “What if the signal can’t pass through? What if the Explorer loses contact after entering the divine realm?”

“We have contingencies,” Windsor answered without hesitation. “If the control signal from behind is lost, the Explorer will autonomously determine its course. It will patrol a limited area near the portal, collect data and samples, and return on its own after a set time. If it detects any harmful substances on itself, it will self-destruct immediately.”

Kamail nodded, not pressing for details on what the automaton considered “harmful substances.” That information was openly circulated within the Theocratic Council, sourced from senior advisors. The “Divine Realm Harmful Substances List” included, but was not limited to, self-moving matter, chaotic light and shadow phenomena, animated shadows, and anything exhibiting those traits. Essentially, anything impossible in the real world that could cause mental contamination and actively spread was considered a potential hazard within the divine realm.

His gaze returned to the portal and the mages controlling the Explorer, focusing on the holographic projections floating between them. The Explorer had already left the portal’s direct line of sight; those on this side could only judge its surroundings through these projections.

They saw an immense open space, mostly paved with huge stone slabs. In the distance stood imposing, majestic buildings with iron-gray walls. Their rooftops appeared adorned with polished spears, swords, and shields. The scene reminded many present of the descriptions given by the War God’s followers:

In the War God’s domain, magnificent palaces and cities rose from the stone earth. The finest weapons and armor were everywhere, decorating the city. Brave warriors fought endlessly in the War God’s arena without fear of death, then feasted and drank through the night in the god’s palace. Everyone had their own palace or temple, and eternal, glorious life.

Now, they had glimpsed the stone-paved land, the iron palaces, and the weapons adorning their roofs. If the Explorer ventured further, it would likely find the arena and banquet halls described in the myths.

“So vast… just like the texts say,” a Typhon mage whispered in surprise, staring at the Explorer’s transmitted images.

“Of course it matches, because the War God’s divine realm was ‘painted’ by the believers themselves,” Windsor said softly, never taking her eyes off the hologram. Then she sighed, “Vast, yet empty… not a single soul. Could it be that the War God wanders this empty city alone?”

“Maybe it only became like this after the War God’s fall,” Kamail mused. “When He was alive, this place might have been bustling.”

“A bunch of imagined phantoms keeping company with an imagined god? And all they do is fight and drink every day…” a Cecil magitech technician muttered, shaking his head. “Doesn’t sound like a very pleasant existence.”

“The sky is dull,” Windsor frowned slightly. “Control team, can the Explorer look up and observe the sky of the divine realm?”

“Certainly. Adjusting viewpoint now—the Explorer is looking upward.”

As the control mage spoke, the holographic image shifted. The “sky” above the divine realm gradually filled most of the frame.

An endless expanse of chaotic, deep darkness stretched out, with no sun, moon, or stars—only faint glimmers of light scattered throughout the void. As the Explorer adjusted its focus, countless tiny floating objects appeared within the vast, chaotic sky.

Those things seemed to be shrouded in mist, or perhaps they were fragmented phantoms drifting behind the clouds in clusters and swarms. It was clear they orbited the Divine Realm, forming a vast, intricate whole—yet with the explorers’ limited vision and resolution, the technicians stationed outside the portal could barely make out what they truly were.

But Kamail and Windsor Mapel knew exactly what they were looking at.

“That must be what the ‘Senior Advisors’ mentioned…” Ms. Windsor murmured softly, “Those things orbiting the Divine Realm…”

“Remnants of the ancient gods, ruins of the Divine Realm itself, fragments of civilizations long gone, echoes of vanished ideologies,” Kamail said in a low, resonant voice that seemed to reverberate in the air. “Those things endlessly cycle through the ‘Deep Sea,’ never fully fading away even after hundreds of thousands of years. Just as the Senior Advisors said… if you live in the Divine Realm, you can see them whenever you look up.”

“But it’s still not quite what I imagined,” Windsor admitted. “I thought there’d be something on a much larger scale…”

Before she could finish, several mages by the portal suddenly gasped. She looked up sharply and saw a massive shadow slowly drifting across the holographic projection—

It was a shattered wreckage, seemingly part of a palace dome’s structure. Yet the chaotic lines and jagged edges didn’t match any architecture Kamail or Windsor had ever known. Along the edges of the debris hung something broken and tattered—perhaps an arm, or maybe a dried, decayed wing. Whatever it was, it stirred unease and drew startled exclamations.

This colossal fragment drifted slowly through the sky, stretching perhaps a kilometer in scale. It hovered so close to the war god’s Divine Realm dome that the explorers could discern some of its finer details. The wreckage floated in from the edge of the projection, gradually filling nearly a third of the hologram’s view before drifting away again, leaving the mortals by the portal with only a twisted, eerie black silhouette—one that sparked endless speculation.

After an uncertain stretch of time, Kamail’s deep voice finally broke the stunned silence, pulling Windsor back to reality: “…The larger-scale things you wanted to see have arrived.”

“That is…” Windsor drew a quiet breath. “That’s also debris orbiting the Divine Realm?”

“Clearly,” Kamail replied gravely. “It seems these remnants vary in size and distance… like bubbles floating irregularly on an ocean. And the so-called Divine Realm is just drifting amid this sea of bubbles.”

“Though I’d heard descriptions from the Senior Advisors before, seeing it with my own eyes is a completely different experience,” Windsor Mapel said with a wry smile. “That sight really startled me.”

“Ms. Windsor, what we’ve seen is only from the explorers’ perspective. We’re still far from truly ‘seeing it with our own eyes,’” Kamail said, his tone solemn and serious as he looked at the legendary Typhon mage. “Next, I’m afraid we really have to ‘go see’ for ourselves.”

(End of chapter)