The Magic Empire for 20,000 years

Chapter 146 The Gisman and the Mind Flayer

In the material plane, in the vast expanse of space, on a distant planet.

Inside a gigantic base rich in fleshy structures, with bizarre shapes that resemble living creatures.

In the vast hall, which resembled internal organs, numerous mind flayers and the mastermind, each with distinct forms and characteristics, gathered together to discuss the next step of their grand plan.

Among these mind flayers and masterminds are the "perfect mind flayers" with crimson skin, the "Ulitharids" with six tentacles, the "mind flayer seers" who can hear the voices of distant lands, the masterminds that normally dwell in saltwater pools, and the "mastermind dragons" that parasitize ancient dragons...

These represent different types and directions of evolutionary forms of mind flayers.

There are at least a hundred legends in just this one hall!
"Everything went smoothly."

"Ten years ago, our fleet traveled through a time tunnel, and more than 20 ships landed on this planet—including three powerful capital ships."

"Without a doubt, this is fate. This planet is the starting point for us to rebuild our great empire in this ancient era."

"This planet is rich in resources but lacks advanced legendary beings. We easily conquered the native inhabitants and took control of the entire planet."

"Most importantly, the physical constitution of the native races on this planet is perfectly compatible with our psychic abilities. They are simply the perfect carriers and mediums of psychic energy!"

As the mind flayers spoke, humanoid creatures with green skin and long, pointed ears walked around them.

These green-skinned men had blank and empty eyes. They were either carrying items or massaging the main brain in the saltwater pool, doing their best to serve their master.

The original inhabitants of these planets have all become slaves of the Mind Flayer!
One of the Mind Flayers smiled at a green-skinned man, its eyes gleaming faintly, revealing a psychic ability.

The green-skinned man, who had been infused with psionic energy, immediately trembled, his entire body floated into the air, and his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth simultaneously emitted a brilliant light.

"The psionic energy transfer loss rate is only 3%."

"The perfect container, the perfect psionic conductor, the perfect weapon!"

The Mind Flayer slightly raised his chin, gazing at the green-skinned slaves floating in the air, and imagined a bright future:
“Using the brains of this oviparous green-skinned race as nourishment, we can breed hundreds of thousands of our own kind and build a Mind Flayer army to conquer the world.”

"In addition, this race's physique is very compatible with psychic abilities. With several generations of modification, they can also possess powerful psychic energy. As our soldiers, they will fight for us in various battles."

"In this ancient, primitive universe, we will rebuild our empire!"

The Mind Flayer stopped channeling spiritual energy, and the green-skinned man floating in the air fell to the ground.

However, the light in the green-skinned man's eyes only dimmed, not completely extinguished, as if a small amount of psionic energy still remained in his body.

They are the perfect vessels for psychic powers, and given time, they may become a psychic race like the Mind Flayers.

This is the original story of the psionic race later known as the Githians—which includes the Githyanki and Githzerai.

Just then, the hall, which resembled the internal organs of a living organism, suddenly trembled slightly, and strands of light flowed and transmitted through the circuits on the ceiling that looked like neurons.

"New information has arrived."

"From a distant planet."

"It was the mainframe of spaceship 65 that activated [Soul Self-Ignition] when it was on the verge of death, releasing a powerful psionic signal and forcibly uploading the information to the astral network."

"On this planet, the crew of spacecraft 65 clashed with the local natives and tragically perished."

"Spaceship No. 65? That's a small, auxiliary exploration vessel, lacking direct combat capabilities. If it unfortunately encounters the enemy, it's quite possible that it would be completely wiped out."

"What kind of planet did Spaceship 65 land on?"

"Intelligence indicates that it is a planet with numerous intelligent races and a highly developed civilization—at least by the standards of this era. There are multiple races on the planet, including elves, dwarves, and dragons."

"Besides spacecraft number 65, it is suspected that several other spacecraft also crashed on that planet."

The numerous mind flayers and mainframes present rapidly analyzed the information transmitted from that distant planet:
"The human race has already been born on this planet?"

"The chosen people of the gods of Sidrian—the Sun Elves?"

"The Lord of Continuity and Unity, the God of Longevity among the Elves... possibly information about the God of Time and Magic?"

"A human monarch who is suspected of having some knowledge of psychic abilities?"

"Is the star this planet orbits a giant portal to the fire elemental plane?"

After receiving and processing all the information, a feeling of ecstasy spread throughout the psionic network:
"This planet holds what we need!"

"We must conquer that planet and turn it into our new colony!"

"Even if we don't dominate the entire planet, it's necessary to eliminate those destabilizing factors on the table—"

"For example, this human race has a learning and growth speed far exceeding that of other intelligent races, and has perfect compatibility with all extraordinary powers."

"According to the database, in the post-apocalyptic era, the human race has become the leader of multiple worlds. But now, they are still just a newly born and weak race."

"We need to nip this risk in the bud and bring this race under the control of the newly emerging Mind Flayer Empire in advance..."

The Mind Flayers and the Masterminds reached an agreement on the current plan and passed a resolution:
"Immediately organize a fleet, including the three main warships No. 4, No. 8, and No. 10, to launch an expedition to the remote planet where spaceship No. 65 crashed." "If the voyage goes smoothly, we can reach the target within a few decades."

"Simultaneously attempt to contact other ships that have crashed on this planet. Aim to complete all necessary preparatory work before our fleet arrives..."

…………

The Demon Star Hada.

The incarnation of Aion, the god of knowledge and prophecy, flies atop the dying star "Hada".

This eerie, demonic star would occasionally create a dark red shadow that would attack this incarnation of a god, trying to extract some energy from the intruder to prolong its own lingering "life."

—【Hada's Thirst】(The prototype of later sorcerer spells)!

However, the darkness, mingled with mad murmurs, was blocked by an invisible shield before it could even approach Aion, rendering it utterly incapable of harming this great deity.

—【Divine Power Shield】(Extraordinary Divine Power)!
"This planet is definitely something wrong with it, it's like it's alive!"

"If it were an ordinary legendary spellcaster, they would probably have been destroyed and devoured by this planet before they even got close to it, right?"

"If we hadn't specifically landed on this planet, we would never have discovered its strange characteristics."

As she flew, Ain continuously cast prophetic spells such as [Knowledge of Legends] and [Analysis of Incantations].

Relying on the authority granted by the divine office of [Knowledge], she can cast these spells infinitely and without expenditure, continuously analyzing the information of this planet.

A massive flow of information surged from all parts of the planet, converging on Aion.

"Indeed, I can vaguely sense that this planet seems to be connected to another plane—and not a known plane such as Hell, the Abyss, or the Mechanical Realm, but an unknown plane that even I, the God of Knowledge, do not know about."

"However, this connection is very weak, far from being strong enough to establish a portal to that unknown dimension."

"However, as time goes by, this connection is growing stronger, and one day, a portal connecting to that dimension will appear on this planet!"

"Based on existing connections, this unknown dimension continues to emit mind-distorting ramblings, and the power it exudes can even modify the laws of mathematics, logic, and geometry to some extent."

"In terms of madness, distortion, and aberration, this unknown dimension probably surpasses even the Abyss!"

"If one day a portal to that unknown dimension were to appear on this planet, it could very well be a devastating catastrophe for the weak creatures of the mortal realm."

"Is this pollution from beyond the known dimensions?"

Ain's original conjecture has been completely confirmed. He prepares to withdraw his avatar and head to the next demonic star:
"This matter is of great importance, involving a dangerous dimension unknown even to the gods."

"Once I have gathered enough information, I will need to inform the other gods."

The first group of gods that came to mind for Aion were the gods of Sidreen—the elven pantheon as commonly known among mortals.

This may be the strongest pantheon in the current universe.

Just as Ain was about to teleport away, her body suddenly trembled slightly.

She sensed it; a stream of information was traveling from afar to this planet, using the astral plane as a springboard.

"Relying on the astral plane's ultra-long-range communication capabilities?"

"Why would someone send a message to this uninhabited planet?"

Who is the recipient?

As the embodiment of knowledge, Ain immediately transformed into a stream of information, instantly flying across half the planet and approaching the destination of the message.

Below, in the dark red ash, a huge crack, tens of kilometers long, suddenly appeared.

A massive object rose from the crack, receiving the astral message from a distant planet.

Ain's eyes widened in astonishment as she stared at the enormous object rising before her.

The image of that gigantic object was reflected in her bright eyes:
It was a colossal spaceship, the size of a city. Atop the spaceship, a gigantic brain over a kilometer tall was mounted.

—A brain as big as a mountain!
Upon receiving the astral message from afar, a small area of ​​this brain mountain suddenly lit up, and the entire brain gently began to undulate, with brilliant light flowing through the grooves of the cerebral cortex.

"Where did this thing come from?"

"The demon star Hada clearly devours the life around it, so why does it still have life of its own?"

Ain was startled.

She had just finished collecting all the information about this planet, and yet she hadn't discovered that there was such a spaceship hidden on it.

If it weren't for the message transmitted from afar revealing their location, Ain would never have discovered the existence of this spaceship and the giant brain!

Ain transformed into a stream of information once more, flying toward the giant spaceship and the brain atop it, eager to find out more.

(End of this chapter)