Extraordinary Pedigree.

Chapter 972 [World Bubble: Embers in the Play]

Xia Xiu uttered a few words in a low voice:

"Hypernarrative control...scripted performance."

He paused, as if chewing on the unsettling word, before finally looking up at the projection in the sky and slowly completing his deduction:

"—The Crimson King."

Armand did not deny it; instead, he raised the corner of his mouth and nodded slightly.

"Yes."

His tone was calm, yet it carried a hint of resignation.

"The destruction of Taronu was indeed deeply related to the Red King."

According to our reconstructed crisis sequence records, seven god-like individuals appeared during its collapse—they called themselves the Seven Sons of the Crimson King, and they appeared in the final stages before the entire civilization was about to collapse.

"This is the most terrifying application of hypernarrative ability—deus ex machina!"

In classical drama, "deus ex machina" refers to an unexpected, sudden, and contrived character, means, or event that abruptly appears to resolve a tense situation or scene within the narrative.

When the plot reaches a stalemate and the predicament seems unsolvable, a powerful deity suddenly appears and solves the problem, bringing the story to a close.

It is not an ordinary physical weapon, but a supernatural device or process that can manipulate the story structure, conceptual hierarchy, and narrative logic itself.

These types of weapons typically achieve their effects by influencing "narrative reality".

After listening to what Amund had to say, Xia Xiu's thoughts finally came together to form a complete network.

The destruction of the Talonu civilization was, in fact, a scripted performance experiment conducted by the Crimson King using his super-narrative authority.

Heaven, on the other hand, serves as a delayed-triggered pollution prevention mechanism, acting as the final cleanup agent, responsible for cleaning up the "garbage" created by the Red King.

Amund's gaze fell still for a moment, as if in that instant he was re-examining the deathly silence of the entire planet.

He finally spoke softly: "Indeed. The 'collapse' created by the Red King using hypernarrative has a far more terrifying contamination than traditional anomalies—it is not physical, not conceptual, but a script disaster that can even infect the narrative itself."

“So,” he said slowly, his voice echoing like a bell in the ruins of the divine kingdom, “we must start from zero, completely and without reservation.”

He raised his head slightly, looking at Xia Xiu, his tone carrying a certain indescribable depth.

"Although we used CR-13 to complete the cleanup operation, we also used the Membrane formatting protocol embedded in their divine structure to carry out a comprehensive faith coverage and reconstruction of the entire planet; cleansing the polluted landscape, the remnants of civilization, and even spiritual factors with the divine Membrane..."

He gently spread his hands, as if describing a perfect purification ritual.

"But Taronho... is still not clean."

Xia Xiu's eyes narrowed slightly: "You mean... there are still residual sources of pollution?"

Amund nodded, his voice lowering, carrying an indescribable air of pressure:

"Yes. Beneath the surface, in the deep information base, there are still several polluting variables that have not been completely sealed off."

"The only surviving son of the Red King fell into a dormant state in the last record and his whereabouts remain unknown to this day."

He then changed the subject, continuing, "Furthermore, we have detected multiple fragmented theological entities of the Fifth Church. They do not exist in physical form, but rather reside in the heterogeneous frequency band in the form of remnants of the Mother and memory spore clusters."

“They will be rearranged like lesions at a moment when the narrative is concentrated enough, and their meaning will be reconstructed through the remnants of culture—that will be a complete revival.”

At this point, a truly cold expression finally appeared on Armand's face.

"And more importantly, we recently discovered an unstable world bubble in the Taronou gravitational anomaly layer."

Xia Xiu frowned, and complex lines of thought appeared in his golden eyes.

“…The Crimson World Bubble?” he repeated softly.

Amund shook his head slightly, his gaze sinking into the illusory rift in the distant sky where divinity had dissipated, his tone steady yet tinged with hesitation.

"Some of it is indeed related to Crimson, but...it's more than that."

He paused, as if considering his words, before continuing:

"The so-called world bubble is essentially a temporary region formed by the fragmented worlds that fell into the ocean of ether after they fell off the tree of knowledge."

“They are neither anomalies nor realities; they are remnants of stories that, after being abandoned by logic, still cling to self-narration—they are unwilling to end, nor do they allow themselves to be forgotten.”

"It is precisely because of the characteristics of the world bubble that they become one of the necessary elements of miracles."

Amund continued, "You should know about the Tree of Knowledge, shouldn't you?"

Xia Xiu subconsciously thought that the courtyard was now in the enclave at Depth 5, from the [Odepapadopoulos/First Father City] of the Alamoya Dynasty.

When he found [Odpapadopoulos], he received information about the [Tree of Knowledge] from the ancient Set.

“I know, it is the bridge between ‘existence’ and ‘non-existence,’ it is what sorcerers need… the true One,” Xia Xiu replied.

When Xia Xiu spoke of "existence" and "non-existence," Amond clearly showed a surprised expression.

He didn't expect Xia Xiu to actually know, and it seemed he knew quite a bit.

“That’s good. I was originally planning to spend some time explaining to you what the [Tree of Knowledge] is, but now it seems... you’re closer to the core of truth than I thought.”

Armand's voice echoed across the astrological interface, like a twilight bell drifting from the depths of memory.

“Now… it’s time to tell you why I exist here in this ‘ghostly’ state.”

He turned around and slowly raised a finger to point to the still-unclosed ripples of information in the sky, the unhealed wounds of the spatial circuits torn apart by the [Hand of God].

"Besides handing over control of CR-13, I was awakened for another extremely secret mission..."

His tone suddenly became solemn.

"Guide the Kingdom of Heaven to contain the world bubble that struggles to emerge from the destruction of civilization."

Xia Xiu paused slightly, clearly intrigued as well.

His subsequent attempt at [Miracle] also required the use of the World Bubble.

Armand continued speaking in a low voice.

“You should understand that the so-called world bubble is not an anomaly or a remnant of civilization in the true sense. Its essence is a special branch that has broken away from the main trunk of the [Tree of Knowledge], a vague existence that has been exiled by truth but has not completely collapsed.”

"Is this world bubble... very special?" Xia Xiu looked up, his voice low.

Upon hearing this, Armand nodded slowly, his voice low but resolute.

"Very special."

He raised his right hand and traced a faint narrative line in the air.

"It is one of the very few that has been identified as a hypernarrative world bubble." "The existence of this world bubble is not a continuation of the physical structure, but an unclosed loop of some high-level meaning logic, and its function is similar to a paintbrush."

Xia Xiu raised an eyebrow slightly.

Amund continued:
"The Heavenly Council calls it [Embers from the Play]. We speculate that it is a fragment of Crimson's subconscious that fell away in order to escape the automatic error-correction mechanism of the [Tree of Knowledge]..."

"This world bubble is very important. The Kingdom of Heaven needs someone to control this world bubble and use it to accomplish some unfinished work that we were unable to complete at that time."

Amund suddenly spread his arms, and the afterglow of the sky cast a long silhouette on him.

His tone was gentle, like that of an old king about to abdicate, or a supplicant preparing to enter eternal sleep.

"My current state... is merely a copy of my consciousness left behind back then, a faint imprint that survived in an extremely secretive way before the collapse of my authority."

"This part of me is neither a living person nor a pure soul, but a memory program destined to dissipate when its mission is completed."

He smiled slightly, his face expressionless, like a stone statue that had completed its duty.

"And one of the missions is to deliver the CR-13 permissions to you."

As he finished speaking, he slowly raised his hand and pointed to the celestial shadow that shrouded the sky above the divine kingdom.

Above the miraculous sky, four colossal figures hovered silently, as if they had stepped out of mythology or been reflected from an apocalyptic world. They circled above the furnace constructed from the remnants of the Hand of God, like four giants suppressing fate and order, silent yet seemingly watching and waiting.

In the sky, the embers of faith and the lingering echoes of divinity intertwine to form a halo, binding and constructing their existence like iron chains, like a cage, or a door—the door to the impending apocalypse.

Amund gazed at them, his voice low, almost a whisper:
"Now... let's begin the handover ceremony of CR-13."

He flipped his right hand and snapped his knuckles together.

The next moment, a six-sided cube composed of light and authority slowly rose from his palm.

It is not a physical entity, but a construct consisting purely of permission protocols and divine authority.

Its surface is surrounded by flowing Mimu keys, and each of its six sides is engraved with ancient characters that seem to have been peeled off from the heavenly laws, like a vow inscribed on the laws of existence.

“This is one of the replicas of Pandora’s Box,” Armand said softly, his gaze fixed on the cube as if looking at a long-sealed past. “It is also the master controller that controls CR-13.”

He reached out and handed the cube to Xia Xiu without the slightest hesitation.

At that moment, the winds of the divine realm seemed to cease flowing, and the four CR-13 individuals trembled slightly in the sky, as if sensing something.

A power transition from the old era is quietly beginning.

Xia Xiu did not hesitate; he extended his right hand with his five fingers spread.

With a sudden sinking sensation, the six-sided cube woven from authority and divinity slowly fell into his hand.

moment--

The world was silent; the wind had stopped and the clouds had gathered.

The whispers of "them," which had previously only echoed in the heavens, suddenly intensified, like countless overlapping whispers, engulfing the depths of consciousness.

Xia Xiu's vision exploded with light and shadow. Lines of permission text, seemingly from a superdimensional security protocol, rapidly rolled across his retina, like a cascading galaxy or the opening of the Book of Revelation.

-

[Eden Kingdom Protocol, Section 42: Transfer of Authority / CR-13: Delegation of Individual Authority by the Adjudication Group]

>>>Initiate handover node identification
>>>Current Control Unit: Consciousness Copy 0.08 [End-of-Life Protocol Pending Execution]
>>>Recipient Identification: Hugh Abraham

>>>Verify Heavenly Lineage Compatibility: Match Successful · Compliance Rate: 97.2%
>>>Unlock Permission Level: Level III Judgment Enforcer
>>>Permission ID: 42
-

In an instant, Xia Xiu felt a tidal wave of energy flowing back to him, as the remaining authority network of the entire divine kingdom surged back to him.

-

The handover process is ongoing.

>>>Activation permission grants synchronization chain
>>>联动神之手残余核心·同步激活：CR-13个体·β-06、γ-07、δ-09、ε-11
>>>Control bridge and permission layer construction in progress...

>>>Warning: [Unmeasurable perturbation factor] exists, number: X-CR13-ψ
-

Xia Xiu closed his eyes, trying to steady the overwhelming tide of power that could annihilate one's soul.

The control keys, adjudication nodes, divine components, and structural mapping diagrams of the CR-13 system, which surged into his mind like a torrent, emerged and superimposed layer by layer in the depths of his soul like veins of light, and finally condensed into an imprint.

He slowly exhaled, and in his palm, the six-sided cube woven from light and rules seemed to sense the command's origin, quietly seeping into his skin and transforming into a burning mark deep within his soul.

The next second—

A flash of inspiration.

As if struck by a sudden inspiration, a set of numbers long etched deep within my divine nature surged into my mind:

——"42"

He entered the string of numbers into his mind.

In an instant, the entire miniature world seemed to have triggered some kind of high-level key, and the dormant cube unfolded in the soul, as if the master protocol that had been dormant for many years had been awakened.

"Di."

The heavy yet pure sound of unlocking echoed in my ears, like a low murmur at the beginning of creation, and then the sky moved.

The four enormous CR-13 entities that floated atop the divine realm, standing silently like forbidden deities, began to tremble.

The twisted and immense divinity within them began to peel away and disintegrate—rings of metallic sheen shed from their bodies, like steel wings breaking apart; thousands of red markings fell from the sky like tears of blood, converging into a reverse-flowing rain.

They... are collapsing.

The enormous figure slowly shrank, twisted, and contracted. Within the vortex of light and flame, the superhuman structure gradually compressed into four humanoid outlines.

then……

"Snapped."

That was the sound of bare feet landing.

Four young girls descended from the sky, their clothes as white as feathers, their pure white skirts reaching their knees and fluttering even without wind.

Their steps were light, yet lifeless; their faces were pale, as flawless as porcelain. All their eyes were open, but the whites were blank, without pupils—like the cold, detached gaze of gods scrutinizing the mortal world.

They stood silently before Xia Xiu, like maidens emerging from a divine furnace, devoid of language and identity, left only with the instinct to carry out orders.

At that very moment, [Vasak] appeared behind Xia Xiu.

The moment the demon of time appeared, beneath Xia Xiu's feet, vast black shadows spread and wriggled like ink, as if millions of reptiles were breathing in unison in the darkness.