Divine Flame Crystal

Chapter 681 Chapter 341 Restart

At this moment, even if they didn't say it out loud, everyone had the same belief burning in their hearts:

——No matter what is ahead, we will fly over it.

And Kronos, standing quietly on the high ground, recorded all this in the scroll of time.

"The 341st Restart, the Sky Ark, has become a fleet."

In the highest meeting hall of the Gear City, the lights remain on all night long.

The long table was piled high with experimental data, a thick stack that looked like a wall of paper.

"The Black Core Engine has proven its limits." A white-haired researcher slammed his hand on the data, his eyes bloodshot. "It can allow the Ark to fly higher and faster, but the maximum stability time is only a thousand breaths. Exceed this limit and the Black Core will oscillate uncontrollably!"

"But we've already built a prototype of a star destroyer," the young scholar retorted eagerly. "It's two kilometers long and equipped with thirty dark matter cannons. If we can provide a stable power supply, it can destroy any obstacle!"

"Stable! You always talk about stability!" the white-haired researcher roared, "But can anyone guarantee that these monsters won't turn into graves the moment they take off?!"

The hall fell into chaos.

As everyone was arguing, a young female apprentice slowly stood up. Her name was Celia. She had originally been a scribe at the research institute, but due to her exceptional computing power, she had been transferred to a core project.

"Everyone." Her voice was cold, but it gradually calmed the noise. "The black core is indeed the limit. But in my latest calculations, I discovered that at the critical point of energy oscillation, an extremely brief 'blank' occurs."

"Blank?" Someone frowned.

Celia nodded. "At the moment when the peak and trough of the energy wave offset each other, the Black Core seemed to lose contact with the world. We named this phenomenon 'rift'."

She pushed open the crystal plate in her hand, and a complex curve appeared on it. "If a tiny amount of conductive energy is injected into the 'rift', the black core will not go berserk. Instead, it will open... a door to the unknown."

The hall was silent.

"The unknown door?" The director's voice was hoarse.

"That's right." Celia's eyes flashed with a strange light, "That means we can borrow energy from the future."

The news spread like wildfire, and almost everyone found it unbelievable: humans could actually "borrow the power of the future."

The experiment was arranged in an abandoned canyon in the north. It was desolate and uninhabited, making it a suitable testing ground.

Ark's experimental ship docked in the center of the canyon, and the black core embedded in the belly of the ship slowly started up.

"The first paragraph is normal."

"In the second section, shock waves appear."

"Pay attention to monitoring the rift point!"

Inside the cabin, Celia's fingers tapped rapidly, her eyes fixed on the curves.

"Here it comes!" she whispered. "In three seconds, the rift will open!"

"Inject conductive energy!"

boom--!

The black core suddenly fell silent, like a pitch-black well, from which shone a faint silver light. That light was unlike any other energy in the world, like a fragment of time itself.

The next moment, all the instruments on the Ark soared at the same time!

"One hundred and eighty percent thrust!"

"Energy overflow!"

"It's self-stabilizing!"

Everyone watched in shock as the Ark no longer relied on cooling and steam, but maintained its balance autonomously, even more stable than any previous Black Core engine test!

Celia murmured, "This is the rift... It doesn't devour, but rather—takes."

The director exhaled slowly, his voice trembling: "Name it."

"Rift Engine."

Late at night, the meeting room was empty.

Kronos walked in alone, his cloak dragging against the stone floor with a low scraping sound. He stood before the blueprints of the Rift Engine, his eyes heavy.

"The power of the future..." he murmured softly, "You have no idea of ​​the cost."

Suddenly, a voice sounded in the darkness: "Old man, do you know?"

Kronos turned around and saw Celia holding a stack of manuscripts, her eyes tired but still bright.

"You shouldn't be here." Kronos said in a deep voice.

"But I have to know." Celia met his gaze. "Where does the energy we borrow come from?"

Kronos was silent for a long time before finally speaking, "From your future. Every time a rift opens, it tears at the river of time, drawing the possibilities of the future into the present."

"What will happen in the future?" Celia asked.

"The future will be even shorter," Kronos replied, his voice as deep as steel. "Every time you succeed, you shorten the road ahead. In the end, you may find that there is no future left to borrow."

Celia's face was pale, but she remained stubborn. "But if we don't lend it, we will lose now. At least... we need to have a chance."

Kronos looked at her with a hint of pity in his eyes.

"As expected, you are still as stubborn as ever."

Two years later, the first Rift Fleet was formed.

Five massive ships, their bellies embedded with rift engines, slowly lifted into the air. Unlike the Black Core era, they barely trembled, as if merging with the sky.

The ship flew through the sky, leaving behind silver trails, as if time was being torn apart in the air.

On the ground, people looked at the magnificent scene with tears in their eyes.

"This is... the wings of the future." Someone whispered with a sob.

"We finally have our own star."

The Rift Fleet's launch sparked a revelry across civilization. Workers laid down their hammers in the streets, children flew kites, and even the temple bells were drowned out by the cheers.

——At this moment, for the first time, humans truly felt that they were standing at the height of "God".

However, the cost soon became apparent.

On the seventh day after the Rift Fleet took off, a strange phenomenon suddenly appeared in a city in the north.

All clocks stopped simultaneously, and for a whole incense stick of time, the sun remained motionless. People fell into a strange panic, believing that the world had stopped.

When time returned to normal, thousands of people in the city suddenly fainted at the same time. When they woke up, their memories were confused, as if a part of their lives had been taken away.

"This is a side effect of the rift," Kronos muttered in the darkness. "The future is being devoured. The more you borrow, the more time and space become fragmented."

But in the meeting room, no one was willing to stop.

The Director announced coldly: "The Rift Engine has changed our destiny. Anyone who opposes it will be regarded as treason."

Celia was silent, with conflicting lights flickering in her eyes.

Driven by the Rift Fleet, humans created the first "Rift Cannon".

It was a three-hundred-meter-long cannon barrel, embedded in the main spine of the Star Destroyer. Inside the barrel was a closed slit cavity that could directly compress future energy into a beam of light.

"It can destroy anything." The engineer's voice trembled.

"Including God?" someone asked in a low voice.

The whole hall was silent for a moment, and no one answered.

——But the same thought was burning in everyone's heart.

Late at night, Chronos stood alone on the deck of a Star Destroyer. The silver rift engines roared beneath his feet, like the heartbeat of the future.

He closed his eyes and murmured:

"Record this. In the 341st generation, humanity activated the Rift Engine, using the future to protect the present. Fleets took flight, and massive cannons took shape. But I know this isn't victory, but the beginning of another kind of... destruction."

The wind blew his cloak, and pain and determination flashed in his eyes.

"But this is the path they have chosen. Even if the end is nothingness, they must be allowed to complete it."

The sky was lit up again.

Ten rift ships took off at the same time, with silver trails crisscrossing each other, as if someone had written huge symbols in the sky.

In the streets and alleys, people poured out of their houses to look up at the brilliant light. Children pointed to the sky and cheered, adults' eyes filled with tears, and the elderly prayed with trembling hands.

"We have finally... stood at the height of the gods." The speaker of the parliament shouted loudly in the central square. "The Rift Engine brings us the future! The Rift Cannon grants us eternal power!"

The applause in the square was so deafening that it made the bricks tremble.

However, in a corner of the crowd, Celia whispered to her companions, "Eternity? Or nothingness?"

Her voice was so soft that it was almost drowned out by the cheers.

The use of the Rift Engine is becoming more and more frequent, and the side effects are becoming more and more obvious.

In a town in the southern border, residents suddenly discovered that the sunrise and sunset times were completely out of sync. Yesterday was daylight, but today was a long night; sometimes there were three dusks in a single day.

"Is the sun broken?" the child asked innocently.