The system is four years ahead of schedule, but Weird is still a cub.

“Follow the planned route, cross the ‘Lightless Trench,’ which is the only area in the ecosystem that can avoid all Forerunner sonar detection,” Cass said.

After several hours of underwater diving, they finally reached the perimeter of the "first observation station".

The sight before them made Kyle and Roca, who were used to seeing bizarre scenes, feel a sense of physical discomfort.

This observatory has long been transformed by the "New God Cult" into an indescribable den of flesh and blood, with countless thick flesh and blood vessels, like aortas, extending from every crack in the building, taking root in the surrounding seabed, and greedily drawing energy from the earth's veins.

The building's surface is covered with a layer of biological tissue that is a mixture of nerves and cables, and is still slightly wriggling.

Countless bizarre "detectors" composed of eyeballs and bones, like rapidly growing tumors, densely packed together, monitor everything around them.

“They… have desecrated the relics of the Creator!” Cass’s blue eyes were filled with rage.

“Prepare to infiltrate.” Roca’s voice pulled him back from his anger.

Using the Deep Diver's familiarity with underwater currents and the Predator mech's stealth mode, the team bypassed most of the detectors without incident and successfully infiltrated the observation station through a long-corroded sewage pipe.

A strong, pungent smell of blood wafted towards us.

When they arrived at the main hall, the ceremony had already reached its climax.

In the center of the hall, on a massive altar made of countless struggling and wailing eerie corpses and intricate mechanical parts, a "high priest" dressed in a white robe, his face covered by a living mask composed of countless still-pulsating neurons, held aloft a staff made of spine bones and chanted incomprehensible language.

Beneath his feet, countless thick flesh-and-blood conduits connected at one end to the core of the altar, and at the other end directly pierced into the main energy pipeline of the [Geothermal Energy Tower] extending from the outside.

They are "stealing" the life source of the entire ecosystem and converting it into an awakening frequency that can stimulate the "heart of winter" to awaken!

Around the altar stood a dozen powerful "purifiers" also dressed in priestly robes, as well as dozens of "war beasts" with grotesque shapes, forcibly stitched together from powerful, bizarre, and heavy machinery.

"Do it!"

Just as the "high priest" concentrated all his magical powers into guiding energy, and the ritual reached its climax, Roca gave the order to attack.

"For our homeland!" Cass roared.

A surprise attack, an outbreak!
Kyle and Roca's "Raiders" squad activated their molten cutting blades instantly, severing several of the most critical energy nodes around the altar with overwhelming force.

The Deep One warriors were even more agile, their crystal weapons bursting with blinding light as they severed the thick flesh and blood vessels!
"Heretical!" the "High Priest" roared in anger.

The "Purifiers" and "War Beasts" around him reacted immediately and launched a frenzied counterattack against the invaders.

One of the "Purifiers," after being pierced by Roca's spear, exploded into a pool of strong acid capable of corroding alloy armor. Another emerged from behind, unleashing several sharp bone blades that moved at high speed along the wall like a spider.

The "High Priest" was even more powerful. With a wave of his spine staff, he could unleash a wide-ranging erosion of bizarre energy, causing hallucinations and madness through "mental pollution," which caused several Deep One warriors to lose control on the spot and begin attacking their own comrades.

However, all of this was in vain in front of Shen Ge.

"It's noisy."

Shen Ge's figure appeared in front of the "high priest" as if by teleportation, and he casually grabbed the priest's throat with one hand, lifting him off the altar.

“Tell me, where is your ‘god’?” Shen Ge asked.

However, just as he was about to crush the other's neck, the mask on the face of the "priest" he was holding, made of throbbing nerves, suddenly broke into an incredibly crazed smile.

"Too late, heretic!"

"Welcome...our Lord...to His Arrival!"

After he finished speaking, before Shen Ge could make a move, he deliberately detonated all the strange energy within his body!
"boom--!"

A surge of insane, compressed energy did not spread outwards; instead, it poured entirely into the core of the altar beneath his feet!
All the energy channels on the altar lit up in an instant!

The "awakening frequency" that had been severed suddenly erupted with a hundredfold intensity in that instant, like a flood that had breached the last dam, surging wildly towards the deepest part of the ecosystem.

The entire ecosystem began to tremble violently. The geothermal energy towers groaned in despair, and massive cracks appeared in the crystal city.

However, the melee inside the observatory hall was less a battle and more a one-sided massacre.

Faced with Shen Ge's unreserved strength, those ferocious "war beasts" were like paper dolls, easily crushed by the invisible force of [collapse].

Those powerful "purifiers" didn't even have time to unleash their most bizarre abilities before their minds collapsed under the unparalleled pressure of the domain's bizarre energy. They were devoured by their own bizarre energy and turned into twisted, charred corpses.

Cass and his battle-hardened elite guards barely had a chance to make a move, and could only stare blankly as the "King of the Land" ended what they thought should have been a life-or-death struggle in a near-crushing manner.

Is this... the power of prophecy?
……

Those members of the New God Cult who were still fighting the Raider squad and the Deep One warriors did not collapse or surrender after seeing the high priest complete the sacrifice.

On the contrary, they all stopped attacking, turned around, faced the altar, and revealed the same fanatical smile as the "high priest".

Then, their bodies turned into pools of shapeless, viscous flesh and flesh, merging into the surrounding energy channels.

A bloody battle ended so eerily. There were no corpses, no spoils, only a scene of devastation and a chilling atmosphere that sent shivers down one's spine.

The dazzling light from the geothermal energy tower began to flicker and became extremely unstable.

In the Crystal City, all the crystal clusters used for lighting and maintaining the ecosystem flicker wildly, like light bulbs with poor contact.

“My people…they…” Cass’s face drained of color.

He could feel an invisible, intangible, yet omnipresent chill invading the depths of every "Deep Diver's" heart, making them restless and even causing them to exhibit aggressive behavior towards their companions.

……

Meanwhile, in the command center of "Ark One": "Warning...warning..."

Hermes's usually smooth and fluent voice suddenly became intermittent and filled with strong electromagnetic interference noise.

Interspersed among its intermittent alarm sounds were faint, eerie, and recurring background noises.

Hephaestus and Ellie were horrified to discover that not only the broadcast, but also the holographic screen in front of them had completely gone out of control.

Countless illogical and horrific graffiti drawn in blood, and faces of melted flesh with no features, only a single stitch, flashed wildly on the screen!
Soon, Shen Ge appeared in the chaotic command room.

He activated his own eerie domain to forcibly block the "information" connection between the command center and the outside world, which temporarily made the strange noises and illusions disappear.

"My lord, what exactly is going on?" Hephaestus asked, his forehead covered in sweat.

“Perhaps the New God Cult’s goal was never to violently ‘awaken’ the Heart of Winter. Their goal was more likely to ‘corrupt’ it,” Shen Ge said.

He raised his head, his eerie eyes piercing through the ecosystem's protection to find the location where the Heart of Winter was stored deep within.

He had previously discovered that the so-called "Heart of Winter" was just a box, but it was highly obstructive, and even the Ghost Eye could not see what was inside.

Shen Ge originally planned to deal with the New God Cult before investigating what the Heart of Winter really was, but now it seems that time doesn't allow it.

The erosion of the eerie energy is emanating from the heart of winter, affecting the ecosystem and Ark One.

"Warning! Inertial stabilization system malfunctioned; gravity parameters... are fluctuating randomly!"

The massive hull of Ark No. 1 suddenly sank downwards.

In the command center, countless people instantly lost their balance and swayed from side to side.

Immediately afterwards, a strange buoyancy lifted the entire ship upwards, as if it were in the midst of a raging storm, yet the sea outside the window remained calm and still.

"Ah! Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer!" A shrill scream echoed from the city of the "Deep Divers".

A young "Deep Diver" warrior was seen frantically waving his crystal spear at the empty sea, his face filled with extreme fear.

The next second, he suddenly turned the spear around and stabbed it into the chest of his stunned companion.

The infighting has begun!

Cass and his elite, resolute guards are doing their utmost to maintain order, but their people are descending into madness in droves.

Some knelt on the ground, facing the void, calling out the names of their long-dead relatives; others huddled in corners, watching countless terrifying monsters, visible only to themselves, crawl out of the shadows and devour their bodies.

The situation inside Ark One is slightly better, but it is still far from optimistic.

Thanks to the advanced protection of Ark One and the generally stronger will of the crew, a large-scale frenzy has not yet occurred.

But that "pollution" seeped in in a more secretive and bizarre way.

"Report, Medical Department... Zhang San, the newest member of dormitory 37, woke up from a nightmare. He... he insists that he just dreamt of a little girl with no facial features, holding a rag doll, sitting by his bedside and singing to him..."

"The engineering department reports...we...we have a brother who said he just received a message from his deceased mother, instructing him...to open the airtight door of compartment 7, saying it's not cold outside..."

A series of chilling reports continued to pour into Alai's Ministry of Civil Affairs. Seeds of fear were quietly sprouting in everyone's hearts.

The final straw that broke the camel's back came from Hephaestus, who reported the worst news to Shen Ge: "My lord... 'Hermes'... it's like it's out of control, unconsciously executing some strange commands, like it's asleep, sleepwalking?"

“No, it’s its core logic… that’s been corrupted!” Hephaestus quickly found a more accurate explanation.

On the main control screen, the biological brain model representing the "Hermes" computing core was mostly covered by an abnormal pink light that represented "non-logical activity".

Its "biological" part exhibited uncontrollable "dreaming" behavior—unconsciously using its computing power to repeatedly analyze the eerie noise and the meaningless blood-red graffiti.

This directly led to a series of random and fatal bugs appearing in various sophisticated systems of Ark One.

"Warning! The 'Armored Spawn' system is out of control! In the No. 3 turret area... a metal rose with a diameter of thirty meters is 'growing'!"

"Warning! The energy conversion rate of 'Furnace No. 2' has plummeted erratically, and energy output... is on the verge of being interrupted!"

Shen Ge unleashed his demonic domain to the maximum extent, while simultaneously creating an invisible barrier around it that prevented it from leaving the domain.

When the pervasive and invasive energy and logical interference collided with Shen Ge's absolute domain containing "devouring power," it was as if it had encountered its natural enemy and was completely absorbed and crushed!
Inside the command room, the annoying noise and flickering illusions vanished instantly.

The core of Hermes's calculations has also temporarily regained its clarity.

Shen Ge's mysterious domain bought everyone a brief respite, but everyone knew that this was only temporary, and Shen Ge could not maintain this "protective umbrella" forever.

"My lord, we cannot 'disinfect' it from the outside!" Hephaestus took advantage of Hermes' lucidity to arrive at the final analysis report.

"This pollution is not energy, nor data; it originates directly from the entire ecosystem... no, it should be said to originate from the heart of winter."

"Unless we can enter the heart of winter and completely eradicate that damned corruption at its source!"

"Otherwise, the entire ecosystem, including Ark One, will be completely assimilated by this erosion!"

Just then, a disheveled Cass, along with the few remaining elite guards who were still conscious, rushed into the bridge of Ark One.

He gasped for breath and said with difficulty, “‘King of the Land,’ it is recorded in the murals left by our ancestors… there is a path that leads to the abyss where the ‘Heart of Winter’ is kept.”

After a moment's thought, Shen Ge said, "From now on, Ark One will enter the highest level of defense mode. Hephaestus, I am temporarily handing over full command to you. Your only task is to maintain the stability of the core hull at all costs. No one is allowed to leave this safe zone before I return."

"My lord, are you going alone?" Hephaestus's voice was filled with urgency. (End of Chapter)