Chapter 1276: “Imaginary Entities”

A murky, hazy sky hung over the vast, lifeless city. There was no sun or stars above—only a uniform, dim yellowish glow. The city was grand and magnificent, yet utterly silent and deserted. This was the unmistakable visage of a dead divine realm. And in this empty, forsaken place, a new group of visitors had just arrived.

Amber’s eyes widened, her face tense as she scanned the surroundings nervously. Only after confirming that nothing was about to jump out and beat her up did she relax slightly. Her gaze then drifted over the distant high walls and the silhouettes of palaces. Muttering thoughtfully, she said, “This place looks so different from the area around the Lady of Night’s throne… I always thought the War God’s realm would be just as open and vast.”

“Different divine realms naturally won’t look the same,” Gawain glanced at Amber and replied casually. “They manifest according to how their followers imagine them based on myths. Each church tries its best to paint a ‘heavenly landscape’ that’s distinct from others. In a way, that’s how they attract and keep their believers.”

“Then I’m sure I’d love the realms of the Three Gods of Plenty or the God of Commerce,” Amber’s eyes lit up, her face breaking into a bright smile. “I heard the garden of the Three Gods of Plenty flows with beer and honey everywhere, the trees are heavy with fruit that never rots, and the long table in the center is piled with feasts enough to feed countless people. The God of Commerce’s realm is covered in gold—everyone builds houses out of gold and jewels…”

Modir, who had been curiously surveying the surroundings, couldn’t help but turn to the “Empire’s Minister of Intelligence” and say, “If the whole world is made of gold, wouldn’t gold become as worthless as stone?”

“Let the God of Commerce figure out the problem of gold’s devaluation,” Amber waved her hand dismissively, clearly showing her attitude toward divine matters. “I just like shiny, glittering things, okay?”

Gawain sighed. “If I didn’t know better, sometimes I’d swear you were raised by dragons.”

Melita and Noretta rolled their eyes simultaneously, but Amber’s mind was already racing ahead. This alliance’s embarrassment, with her usual strange logic, seemed to have scribbled some new idea in her head. Suddenly, she brightened as if discovering a new world and said excitedly, “I think I’ve got an idea… Look, we can already enter the War God’s realm without being corrupted. So, if our technology in the divine domains keeps advancing, could there come a day when we can freely enter other gods’ realms without fighting divine wars? Then we could just run straight into the God of Commerce’s realm and steal money, or go visit the Three Gods of Plenty…”

The moment she said this, not only Gawain and Modir but even the White Knights, who were meticulously carrying out their duties nearby, fell into an awkward, stunned silence. Melita and Noretta exchanged worried glances, while Amber grew more and more excited. “And that’s not all! If we manage to master the laws of the Thought Currents, we could even use them to create things, then sneak into the corresponding divine realms to steal—uh, I mean, take them…”

Gawain stared dumbfounded at Amber’s sudden mental sprint, blinking for a couple of seconds before reacting: “Wow, are you trying to hack the system here?”

“What does ‘hack the system’ mean?” Amber blinked in confusion. Nearby, Windsor Mapel, who had been quietly listening, pondered seriously for a long moment before shaking her head. “I’m afraid, Miss Amber, that what you’re describing… is unlikely to be possible.”

“Huh?” Amber blinked, surprised, looking at the legendary mage from the Typhon Empire.

“Based on our research of divine realms, everything within these spaces supported by ‘Thought Currents’ is not ‘stable existence,’” Windsor Mapel explained earnestly. “Take the high walls and the swords decorating the palace you see now—they are solid entities here. But when we brought samples into the outside, real world, they quickly deteriorated and dissipated, even undergoing strange changes in their nature. Steel turned into loose, fragile sand; stones evaporated into thin air; cloth became transparent and disintegrated… Except for the War God’s own ‘remains,’ almost nothing can remain stable for long once removed from the divine realm’s environment.

“We suspect this is related to the War God’s fall, but the deeper reason lies in the cessation of the War God’s Thought Currents. Worldwide belief in the War God is shrinking, and with the gradual revelation of the truth behind the God Hunt, many once-devout followers have begun to doubt their faith. This shift is clearly reflected in these ‘Thought Current products’ like the divine realm itself.

“Therefore, Master Kamail, my mentor, and I have given a name to those things in the divine realm that cannot maintain stable existence in the real world—we call them ‘Imaginary Entities.’

“In summary, Miss Amber’s idea assumes that things in the divine realm can exist stably, which requires a stable belief Thought Current in the mortal world. This runs counter to what we are currently doing…”

The Typhon mage president explained the special nature of these “Imaginary Entities” in the divine realm with rigorous logic, analyzing Amber’s wild idea seriously—probably the only scholar so far to take Amber’s nonsense seriously. This made Amber feel awkward, and she scratched her head, glancing at Gawain. “I feel a bit embarrassed…”

Windsor looked at Gawain seriously. “It seems my explanation has troubled Miss Amber?”

“Uh… no, no need to worry,” Gawain quickly waved his hand. “Your explanation is very meaningful to me. We really need these professional insights into the mysteries of the divine realms…”

He couldn’t very well tell a foreign scholar that his Minister of Intelligence was a goofball. Usually, the scholars of Cecil’s empire wouldn’t even entertain her ideas.

Still, despite Amber’s harebrained scheme, Windsor Mapel’s explanation of the divine realm’s “Imaginary Entities” sparked some thoughts in Gawain’s mind. Looking at the ancient, magnificent temples and city before him, he couldn’t help but wonder—if these “Imaginary Entities” collapse in the real world without Thought Current support, how do they remain stable for so long in this so-called “Deep Sea” domain? And how can the remains of a god last longer than the divine realm itself? What principle governs this?

In this “Deep Sea,” the boundary between matter and thought seemed especially blurred. The tangible things people saw and touched were essentially vast amounts of “information” imagined by mortal minds… For some reason, this reminded Gawain of a “discovery” mentioned by the goddess of magic, Mimirna, in her report—

At the world’s lowest level, matter and magic share similar properties; the line between the physical and the non-physical is not clear-cut but a gradual transition.

Gawain shook his head, setting these uncontrollable thoughts aside for now. Though he could come up with countless theories, they were just guesses and useless at the moment. He still remembered the original purpose of his visit.

“Take us to the ‘border,’” he said seriously, looking at Kamail.

Led by Kamail and Lady Windsor, Gawain’s group passed through the quiet Path of the Cheerful, the arena district, the empty, abandoned palaces, and the outer city, finally arriving at the “divine realm border,” which was showing signs of collapse and dissipation.

A vast sea of dust clouds stretched out before them. The endless, rolling mists and the dark, chaotic “extradimensional space” beyond made Amber hold her breath. Deep within the cloud sea, a massive vortex swirled, with unsettling spatial rifts and a flowing blue light at its core catching Gawain’s attention.

The two young dragons trailing behind Melita and Noretta immediately grew restless, flapping and calling toward the vortex, excited yet tense.

Melita bent down to soothe her daughters, her gentle touch calming the little ones somewhat. Noretta looked up, her face full of worry as she said, “It seems we were right… These rifts are the same as the ones we found in the Tower of the Reverse Tide… They’re all breaches in the Deep Blue Pathway, maybe even the same ‘current’ connected together.”

Amber swallowed nervously. “So the thing in that tower escaped through the rift, came out here, and now it’s even in the Lady of Night’s realm…”

“The rift is outside the War God’s realm—though it looks close, that’s because the War God’s realm is drifting uncontrollably,” Gawain observed carefully, analyzing the distant cloud sea. “There’s no sign of Reverse Tide’s corrosion around the rift. It’s possible the Deep Sea’s special environment erased those traces, or maybe the Reverse Tide didn’t linger after leaving the rift and moved on quickly.”

“After being trapped in the Reverse Tide Tower for so many years, even a ‘chaos evil god’ with only instinct would choose to get as far away as possible once free,” Melita said, her hand stroking the smooth scales of her two daughters. “Unfortunately, if there are no traces left here, then the trail’s gone cold… We can only enter the War God’s realm now, but we know nothing about the Deep Sea’s secrets, nor where the Lady of Night’s realm is.”

“The trail from the rift is cut off, but another clue might still exist,” Gawain said gravely, slowly raising his head toward the edge of the endless cloud sea. The area should have been shrouded in darkness, but a bright orb floated above the clouds—a “Light” spell left by Mimirna. Supported by the former goddess of magic’s power, the orb would likely keep this place illuminated for a very long time. “Kamail, you mentioned the ‘Iron Land’ appears periodically, right? How much longer until it shows up again?”

“It approaches the divine realm border roughly every two days,” Kamail replied promptly, his voice humming. “Since we first explored here, it has appeared twice on schedule, with a very stable pattern. You’ve arrived just in time—today is the day it appears again. But we’ll probably have to wait here a bit longer.”

Gawain nodded, then asked, “I heard you’ve done some reconnaissance on the ‘Iron Land’? How did you scout it? What did you find?”

“We managed to send a self-governing magical automaton up there,” Kamail nodded as he explained. “The automaton conducted several hours of reconnaissance inside the target area before entering a powered-down sleep mode. It reactivated and transmitted the collected data back to us whenever the target approached the border of the Divine Realm again. Based on the information it gathered, we confirmed that this ‘steel land’ slipped into a dark, chaotic space after leaving the Divine Realm. During its ‘voyage,’ it came close multiple times to certain floating objects within that darkness, but for some unknown reason, the automaton’s recording devices never captured clear images.”

“However, one thing is certain: humans can survive and operate on that ‘steel land.’ The automaton detected no toxic substances or harmful radiation, and the ‘steel land’ itself is enveloped in an energy shield of unknown origin, maintaining a mild and safe environment inside. Still, given the uncertainties surrounding this mysterious place, Ms. Windsor and I strongly recommend thorough protective measures and ample supplies when exploring the area.”

“Where is the automaton now?” Amber asked curiously from the side.

“It’s still deep within that ‘steel land,’ and after its last data transmission, it entered sleep mode again,” Kamail replied. “Not to conserve energy—since leaving the War God’s Divine Realm, the automaton can recharge from the environment itself. But its autonomous decision-making is limited, and the deeper structures of the ‘steel land’ have become increasingly complex, requiring judgments beyond its capabilities. We feared it might encounter trouble during further exploration, so we issued the sleep command during the last communication.”

“It’s still there…” Gawain nodded slightly. Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed ripples forming in the distant dark chaos.

A hazy, chaotic beam of light spread out from the dark ripples, slowly rising and drawing closer.

It reminded him of a submarine surfacing from the deep ocean—or perhaps some kind of deep-sea creature with bioluminescent organs.

The ‘steel land’ Kamail mentioned had appeared again, following a strict timetable, crossing an unfathomably long voyage, and now returning to the ever-fracturing border of the Divine Realm.

“Kamail, Victoria, Amber, and Modiel, come with me to investigate,” Gawain said immediately, turning around. “Melita will fly us there. The rest of you stay here to provide support.”

In the distance, the imposing steel giant had already revealed about a third of its structure beyond the edge of the dark chaos. Dust from the cloud sea boundary swirled as the steel land stirred it up, creating a spectacular vortex of dust and mist. Lights of various sizes flickered along the edges of the colossal structure, outlining a form wider than any city wall.

“Your Majesty Gawain, I wish to accompany you,” Windsor Mapel stepped forward, despite being asked to stay behind for support. “I hope you will allow it.”

Gawain glanced at the figures around him.

He realized he couldn’t exclude the Typhon people from this mission—whether from a political standpoint, academic collaboration, or considering the contributions of all parties involved in the ‘Gate’ project, the Typhon deserved a place in the exploration of that ‘steel land.’

(End of chapter)