Chapter 651: Architect’s Remains (III)

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[They never found me after I escaped, except for a few times I allowed them to see me from a distance, which made them desperate to catch me and return me to my ’proper place’.]

[The fallout after my departure was quick. They quite literally mobilized the entire race to do a carpet search for me, yet even with their hard work and effort, none of them managed to find me. The only times they could is when I wanted them to, and even then, they can’t catch me. I guess I’m just that good.]

[But because of my departure, they lost the one person who actually knew what he was doing.]

[I dare not say that I’m the best architect and engineer in the whole race, but in terms of familiarity with the Phantasmal Furnace, I surpass them all. It’s not that hard, really. Being the furnace guy was quite literally my entire life at that point.]

[The ones that worked with me before had already been disposed of because they too saw how corrupted we’ve become. They swore to never build a furnace again after learning the truth, and the new overlords of the race didn’t like their rebellious attitude, so they were dealt with.]

[All of that happened while I was still locked up in my room, slaving away unknowingly and making one furnace after another, thinking that I was helping my kin by doing so.]

[Since they lost me too, they practically lost everybody who knew how to build the furnaces, especially since I took everything I knew and owned with me.]

[They had to reverse engineer the previous and older furnaces I and my fellow engineers made, and that took them a while…about 300 years, I’d say.]

[It wasn’t really surprising. After all, the knowledge to build the furnace was the crystallization of our kin’s greatest hopes and desperation. It was sacred to us and was meant to be an act of protection and preservation.]

[Us engineers and architects swore to never desecrate this intention, and we’re not to allow others to do so either; that’s what our old patriarch instilled in us before we were even allowed to work on it.]

[They tried to pry this information from us, but they’ve always failed because we’re oathbound. No power in the entire race or the Primitive Universe can interfere with that.]

[But, kudos to them. They did manage to figure it out. It took them longer than we did, but results are results either way, and even without the supply of new furnaces, the Divine Bloods remained as the most dominant force in the entire Heavenly Star Chaos Realm, so much so that ’The Brood’ never even dared to come close to it.]

[That said, even though they figured out the foundations to build the furnace, their path onwards remained bleak. Why? Because what they discovered wasn’t as ’glorious’ or as ’revolutionary’ as they thought it would be.]

[They discovered how to make the prototype of the furnace, the one that provided basic protection to our most glaring vulnerability. And that’s it.]

[As for the improved versions? That was between us, the architects and engineers. That information was passed on to secure channels, one that only we could access. The new overlords, or the new generation of the brightest minds of the race, couldn’t crack that channel no matter what they did, and they’d never be able to since I already destroyed it.]

[They killed my fellow architects and engineers because they refused to bow down to them. They tried to chain me down but failed to do so. All this resulted in them losing all the required information to build the more advanced furnaces, which halted the overwhelming progress of the race.]

[You might think that I’m being obstinate here, that I’m being selfish by getting in the way of the new generation’s path forward, that I’m deeply bound by my past, sense of duty, and nonsensical righteousness.]

[And believe me, I thought so too…so many times. But time and time again, I was reminded by none other than those fools that my decision to stop supporting them was the correct choice, because they’ve proven themselves too horrible to handle power and responsibilities.]

[Their insatiable greed to have everything, to become truly perfect, had consumed whatever was left of their sanity.]

[Their desire for perfection was too much. So much that they don’t care what happens to their surroundings. Anything that prevented their march towards perfection was seen as a heretic that must be expunged from existence. It doesn’t matter who or what it is; nobody was allowed to stop this ’pilgrimage’ of theirs, even if it’s coming from within.]

[The height of their insanity gave them the idea to enslave the Primitive Universe itself.]

[Yes, you read that right. They planned on enslaving the Primitive Universe itself, forcing it under their heel. Their logic is that ’Everything must bow before perfection’.]

[While it might sound insane and impossible, this idea wouldn’t have been born without a basis. They do have the capital to do it, and it’s none other than the Phantasmal Furnace itself.]

[Through experiences numerous ascensions, one at a time, eventually, they will become a perfect being, one that is all-powerful and has no weaknesses nor flaws. They planned on divesting everybody else, those that they didn’t find worthy, of the natural blessings they used to have, thinking that since they’re a perfect being, the ownership of the Primitive Universe should understandably be theirs too, and being the owners of the Primitive Universe gave them the right to distribute these blessings according to how they saw fit.]

[And how did they plan on divesting the blessings of nature from others? Though the use of the Phantasmal Furnace, obviously. They wanted to build a divine artifact that could devour or remove the natural blessings of other races, which they could, later, use however they wanted to.]

[From the moment they figured out the foundations on how to build the furnaces, that’s the goal they’re already working towards. But because I wasn’t there to make it happen for them, they had to understand that this project will take a very long time to do so.]

[Learning about all of this chilled me to my core. I couldn’t look at these people the same. I am horrified of what they’ve become, so I hid. They never gave up searching for me, but they also realized that they could never catch me anymore, so they focused their attention elsewhere.]

[But even as I hid, I paid attention to their progress. With how slow they were, it would’ve taken them millions of years to achieve their goal, and I know that the new overlords of the race wouldn’t readily accept that, so I was already anticipating an escalation.]

[The escalation did occur, but it was on a scale that even I didn’t expect.]

[One of the new overlords was an unhinged one. He sees himself as a god inside and out and forces others to believe that he is too. He was one of the cruelest and most demanding overlords of the new Divine Blood era, and he couldn’t be dethroned because he was too powerful.]

[This one wasn’t satisfied with how long the project was taking. Many engineers and architects had died in his hands because he was dissatisfied with them.]

[But his craziness and entitlement didn’t end there. He wanted results soon, and since everyone around him was useless in his eyes, he decided to take matters into his own hands.]

[He gathered every single Phantasmal Furnace that’s been made, both the old ones and the new. And with madness in his eyes, he used the Law of Creation and Life to fuse them altogether, hoping to build a single furnace that could do everything and so much more.]

[But instead of getting his wish, something different answered him.]

[His act of madness caused a Singularity, and doom started there.]

[That Singularity caused ’The Null’ to appear. Yes, the very area that you’re on as you’re reading this was the point of impact.]

[The ascension he was expecting didn’t come. Instead, what he got was decline. All of the modifications to his blood brought to him by the furnaces were stripped off, one painful layer at a time. And it wasn’t just limited to him; everybody around him was affected.]

[Additionally, our home started collapsing. It wasn’t obvious at first, but the impact of the singularity had a profound and lasting effect on our home and us, Divine Bloods, more specifically.]

[And ’The Null’ started off small. Only covering a mere 10-meter distance. But as you can see now, it steadily expanded over time, and it couldn’t be stopped.]

[Seeing all of that happen, I immediately realized that it’s all over. That lunatic doomed us all. I know that they’d be in denial for a while, but I wasn’t interested in staying around to accompany them.]

[I knew what The Null represented. I knew what it could do and I knew what I should to keep it here.]

[I knew that it’s already too late for me to save my kin. We’re already doomed the moment The Null appeared. But the rest…they don’t have to fall alongside us.]

[My kin was beyond saving, but I can save others from us. And that’s where my work went to next.]

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