The Record of Unusual Creatures

The gemstone that Ertos mentioned was right beneath the Grand Temple. The old priests of the day apparently attached great importance to the object. They had drilled a shaft of a few hundred meters deep in the bone foundation below the city. They built a secret chamber and sealed it with molten metal. It was because of this ridiculous storage method that the gemstone escaped the destruction caused by the battle between Hao Ren and the Malevolence, as well as the rebellion that occurred in the Grand Temple thousands of years ago.

However, a shaft of a few hundred meters and a layer of metal were not a much a problem for Hao Ren’s autonomous robots. The robots bored a sloping passage next to the high ground and extracted the gemstone.

Just as Hao Ren and Vivian had expected, the gemstone was a blood crystal.

A mysterious radiance flowed from the clear, blood-red gemstone. Each facet of the gem reflected the turbulent vortex at the dimensional boundary. It looked beautiful and mysterious. Vivian held the gem in her hand and gently caressed it. “A Malevolence not only lived sanely for nearly a hundred years but also created such a blood spar before it completely went crazy. Hao Ren, what do you think is inside?”

“Perhaps the Malevolence’s message,” Hao Ren said with a frown. “But I do not recommend that you absorb this thing. This Malevolence is too unusual. She was even divine. The bloodstone that she left behind is definitely different from what you have in the past.”

“I will think about it,” Vivian said, shaking the gemstone in her hand with a smile. “But you know me, if knowing that there was no bad energy in the blood-red crystal, I will surely absorb it. After all, every piece of blood spar contains my lost memories or precious information. I cannot turn a blind eye to it.”

Hao Ren knew Vivian well enough that he knew he could not easily change her mind. He said no more but just nodded gently. “Then be careful. If you decided to absorb it, do inform me beforehand.”

“Of course I will,” Vivian said with a smile and a nod. But just before she continued, a rumble suddenly came from afar, accompanied by a series of bursting sound. The ground under the feet began to shake slightly.

“What happened?” Y’zaks quickly looked up and into the distance. A cloud of dust gradually rose up in his vision.

A vast expanse of dust clouds rose from the edge of the city. Buildings in the dust shook and collapsed. While the dust clouds rose, it twisted as if being stirred by an unseen force. The dust clouds gradually formed into a terrible vortex as if a tornado and almost became one with the sand vortex at the dimensional boundary.

Hao Ren knew what it was with just a glance. “The collapse of the alien dimension has accelerated!”

Hessiana was shocked. “How could this be? Is it not there are still a few days before the total collapse?”

“During the battle with the Malevolence, I have detonated at least several dozens of nuclear warheads with more than half of the destructive energy reaching the dimensional boundary,” Hao Ren said. “Not to mention, there was Lily’s Doggoblast, Vivian’s Lighting Storm, and a bloody sea of the Malevolence. With so many things exploding at the same time, would you still think that this place would hold up?”

Hessiana looked at Hao Ren and froze. After a long while, she said, “Since you know that you are the culprit, why do you still sound so blunt?”

“What choice did I have in that situation?” Hao Ren rolled his eyes at the little bat and then turned to look at the transparent ‘jellyfish’ that was slowly drifting in the sky. “Ertos, this place is going to fall apart. You have to get out of here!”

“I know, I know this day will come sooner or later,” Ertos said. Its voice was still calm despite the rumbling of the collapsing dimension. “No need to worry about me, this kind of dimensional collapse won’t kill a chaotic wanderer. You should leave now, the city would not hold up.”

More violent earthquakes in the distance. The dimensional collapse had accelerated further. It was like an activated chain reaction; when the reaction had not yet started, the structure of space-time was still stable, but once it reached a tipping point, the disintegration would be as quick as sea wave hitting a sandcastle. It would be unstoppable. In just a matter of a few words, Hao Ren saw smoke and dust rose in all sides of the city. In the most severely disintegrating places, the entire land rolled up with buildings and broken boulders floating like foams. They whirled in the air into a spiral and then plunged into the drifting sand vortex at the chaotic boundary.

The entire lost city was falling into the vortex at the dimensional boundary with an accelerated speed.

“What are you going to do?” Vivian asked aloud. “Are you sure you can get out?”

Ertos did not answer directly but sighed. “I have been stranded in this place for too long. Now, the master has died, and the city has come to an end. It is time to say goodbye to this place. Go! While you still can.”

“Let’s go.” Hao Ren had felt the determination of Ertos in the spiritual connection. He held Vivian and said, “Don’t worry about it, it knows what it is doing.”

The disintegration of the dimension was gradually approaching its peak, and finally, the gravity environment began to dissipate. The gravitation force relied on the space-time structure to exist. When this structure crumbles, the gravity weakened and twisted. The entire ancient city of Ertos slowly tilted into the quicksand barrier, the structure on the edge of the city was torn apart and spiraled into the quicksand vortex. Hao Ren and his team quickly ran across above the city. They saw a massive black crack in the central axis of the city, where the bone fragments of Ertos spewed out of the cracks like the fire of hell.

The spirit of Ertos began to leave the city.

The enormous ‘jellyfish’ retracted its tentacles. Its nearly transparent body slowly changed shape, as if preparing for the final sprint. On the ground, the runes on the stone soldiers went out one by one, after they lost control. Their burning core finally cooled down. After losing the core support, these exquisite figurines could never move again. Like the natural stones, they floated off the ground and drifted toward the lowering dimensional boundary as the gravity went haywire.

It had been a wise move to leave a set of stabilizers at the dimensional entrance earlier.

The collapse of the alien dimension had destabilized the passage to the main material world. Had it without the stabilizer, the passage might have been reduced a beam of energy spark. When Hao Ren and his team arrived at the exit, the passage that used to be a wide gap had turned into a glaring circular hole. The edge of the portal, forcibly maintained by the stabilizer, continuously burst in bright electric arcs and was clearly on its limit.

“Get the hell out of here quickly. This place is not going to hold any longer!” Hessiana hurried Y’lisabet and Rollie as they ran toward the exit. “Everyone keeps up! Don’t fall behind!”

Everyone passed through the portal. Hao Ren and Vivian were running at the rear of the group. As their front feet stepped into the space-time tunnel and before it completely collapsed, they looked back at the lost city.

The entire city had almost completely disintegrated. The earth had broken up and floated in the dimension, the ruin of the Grand Temple had collided with pyramids in the air and crumbed into million pieces in a series of loud bangs.

A translucent, formless large creature floated above the wrecks. It stayed there as if paying the last tribute to its former body before turning around and drifting toward the most massive vortex of the dimensional boundary.

The powerful tearing force of the dimensional collapse seemed to not affect Ertos. Its figure swayed slightly in the vortex before disappearing through the barrier.

In the heads of Hao Ren and Vivian, they heard Ertos say goodbye to them.

“It looks like a fish.” Rollie poked her head back out the space-time tunnel.

“Hurry up!” Hao Ren smacked on the head of this dumb cat who seemed to be completely ignorant of the danger. “This place is disintegrating!”

The moving in the unstable space-time tunnel was a dizzying experience. But the disorientation did not last long before Hao Ren felt that his feet were already on solid ground. He shook his head and quickly adapted his eyes to the dim environment.

It was still the cave covered with yellow sand.

The two men of Hessiana still faithfully waited there. They rushed up to them when everyone emerged from the crack safely. “Oh, great, you are all safe. Matriarch, this place has been shaking for quite a while!”

Hessiana looked around at the cave. The walls of the cave were also squirming and contracting. The yellow sand on the ground was dissipating like a phantom in the wind. “Let’s first get the hell out of here. This cave will be gone soon.”

The young male vampire saw the grave expression on Hessiana’s face and asked, “Matriarch, what happened inside?”

Hessiana glanced at Vivian and then at Hao Ren before letting out a soft sigh. “My family is a mess. It is difficult for me to explain to you with your level of perception.”

The young vampires were stupefied.