Chapter 687: The Edge of Ruin
"Cadence? What happened?" Nash asked, seeing who it was.
Cadence was a tier 6 scientist responsible for the grand array of the Sun Star Void Area.
Seeing her rush in, Nash assumed something had gone wrong with the array.
"We’re being pulled in! I don’t know how or why, but we’ve lost directional control!" Cadence said gravely.
The Sun Star Void was a cluster of celestial bodies, and naturally, it drifted according to the gravitational currents of the void.
With micro-adjustments and array manipulation, they could steer this movement and carry the entire territory along with them.
But now, an unknown force was dragging them in a different direction.
"Is it the forbidden zone?" Nash frowned.
He knew they were near the edge of a forbidden zone, but had no clear picture of what dangers lay within.
"It most likely is! What do we do? Based on our scans, the closer we’re pulled in, the stronger the dark beasts we encounter."
"Hasn’t the acceleration array already been completed? Deploy it, see if we can overcome the pull of the forbidden zone."
"Right, of course! We can use it!" Cadence slapped her forehead, having momentarily forgotten about the sub-array they integrated into the grand array.
Initially, the acceleration sub-array had been incorporated to increase their speed and migrate to another domain area.
No one had anticipated they would end up using a heaven-defying domain-level teleportation array instead.
As for the makeshift teleportation station they had built, its range was limited to within a single domain area, not worth the cost for anything larger.
Not wanting to be swallowed by the unknown, Cadence quickly rallied her subordinates to activate the acceleration array, pushing away from the forbidden zone.
Watching with tense hearts, they held their breath as the Sun Star Void Area began to slow its inward drift.
"It’s not enough, increase the power!"
With the acceleration ramped up, the pulling force was finally countered, as the Sun Star Void Area ground to a halt.
"Still not enough. Activate the acceleration array at full power and shift our heading to the flank!"
Rather than pulling directly away, angling to the side meant meeting less resistance from the forbidden zone’s pull.
Sure enough, with the array running at full capacity, instead of being dragged inward, they skirted along the edge and slowly began to exit the forbidden zone’s range.
Meanwhile, Nash, watching the operation from the side, noticed their energy meter beginning to crash again.
"Don’t worry, once we reach an equilibrium distance, energy consumption should drop off," Cadence said, trying to reassure him.
"Just make sure we don’t run out of energy." Nash could only sigh.
If their energy ran dry in the middle of the dark beast swarm, death was the only outcome awaiting them.
The energy meter, in that sense, was the clearest indicator of how close to death they truly were.
Of course, if things reached their absolute worst, Nash could use the Altier Arcane Tower to teleport to the Azure Heaven Alliance or the Chronos Alliance and seek a loan.
But doing so would send the Neon Star Alliance into a downward spiral they might never recover from.
---
A few days later, with every key member of personnel awake and recovered, Nash could finally relax.
Furthermore, as they pulled away from the forbidden zone, the drain from the acceleration array began to ease.
Given enough time, it should taper down to a bare minimum until it orbited to the forbidden zone’s pulling force.
With the Sun Star Void Area stabilized, Nash finally permitted the people sheltering in the refuge to come out.
The array sustaining the shelter also carried a massive energy cost.
To conserve as much energy as possible, they had no choice but to let them out of the refuge.
More importantly, with the vast population out, they could finally restart industrial production.
Whether it was building defensive modules, battleships, or dark energy purification devices, none of it could move forward without these people.
---
On Ceren Planet, Ceren 807 Refuge:
When the announcement came that they were finally free to leave the shelter, everyone erupted in joy.
Although the shelter had kept them safe, it had been stifling, overcrowded, with food, water, and all manner of supplies strictly rationed.
Stepping out, they couldn’t help but spread their arms wide and breathe in the open air.
But instead of relief, they felt as though they were breathing through a thick haze, suffocating, like fog or ash.
Cough~ Cough~ Cough~
"What’s happening? Is there some kind of invisible pollutant in the air?"
Choking on the invisible contaminant, everyone began scanning the surrounding atmosphere.
Yet even after running their detection equipment, nothing registered on any readout.
Still, with every breath, a dull headache crept into their head, feeling weaker each second.
Quickly, they grabbed their intercoms and reported their findings to the higher-ups.
The same problem was surfacing in other locations, with varying degrees of severity.
In some areas, people couldn’t even step out of the shelters, as the unknown pollutant was enough to knock a person unconscious.
Soon, with more and more reports flooding in, various leaders and scientists, already stretched thin managing the dark beast crisis, were forced to divert manpower toward investigating what was happening.
---
At the Neon Planet Headquarters, Nash, who was overseeing the overall command of the battlefield, suddenly received an entirely different kind of report.
"Dark energy penetrating the interior?" Nash frowned.
The entire Sun Star Void Area was encased within a grand array.
While it couldn’t block dark energy entirely, the grand array’s filtration should have reduced it to negligible levels.
Furthermore, if the concentration within the perimeter crossed a certain threshold, the various detectors they had installed would sound an alarm.
"Is this another effect of the forbidden zone?"
Transmuting corrosive dark energy into an elusive form capable of slipping through most defenses, no wonder it was called a forbidden zone.
Without sufficient power, even the strongest of teams would be corroded to ruin over time.
And this was only the edge of it. Nash could only imagine what the center was like.
Fortunately, this particular problem was not without a solution.
Following his orders, the dark energy purification devices they had in stock were immediately deployed to the most heavily contaminated areas.
As for the rest, they would simply have to endure for now.
A single purification device could only maintain one planetary system out of dark energy.
With tens of billions of planetary systems within the Sun Star Void Area, their stockpile was far too scarce.
"I’ll have to delay the order with the Azure Heaven Alliance for now..."
Comments