novelAbove the Crimson Moon
| ← Ch.1511 | Ch.1513 → |
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When the Crimson Moon arrived at this world, everyone in Minas Elenion saw this miraculous vision.
As the last ray of sunset disappeared behind the mountains, a blood-red moon seemed to appear out of the dark sky amid the ringing sound of the bell. Hilda thought that it was the sound coming from some bell tower in Minas Elenion, but soon she realized that it came from within her mind. It was an extremely powerful spiritual mirroring. Everyone who looked at the moon had heard the mysterious bell ringing in the head. The sound seemed to originate from ancient times, crossing space and time and mirroring into the spiritual world of everyone.
A faint blood-red light had coated Minas Elenion. The moonlight was licking this world with its color, which was ubiquitous and unhindered by any obstacles. Everything looked in a strange color within the range of illumination of the Crimson Moon. But this phenomenon did not conform to common optical law. The dumbest people could even tell that this moon hanging in the sky was unnatural.
Everyone in the hall of the ceremony became nervous as soon as the Crimson Moon appeared. Lily was raising the emergency stop device—the giant alloy sword—slowly while Nangong Sanba reached out his hand as if he was touching the moon.
"The moonlight is harmless!"
As the blood-red moonlight filled the heavens and the earth, people who bathed in it did not manifest any adverse reactions except mental stress. The various warnings and detection arrays set up in advance on the mage tower had completed a preliminary analysis of the moonlight, which was found to be of unnatural light but did not carry any destructive energy.
Vivian had successfully controlled the power of the Crimson Moon and filtered out its destructive energy.
Vivian was still keeping the summoning ceremony running, but the pressure on her had decreased dramatically after the arrival of the Crimson Moon. She opened her eyes slightly, smiled, and looked around her."It is not difficult to control. It seems that recovering the Malevolence has helped strengthen me. Lily, can you please put that thing down first?"
The husky maiden poked out her tongue and lowered the giant alloy sword beside her feet. But her hands were still on the hilt—who knew what would happen at this critical moment? She had seen enough of that on TV.
Meanwhile, at the corner of the control array, the Aerymian Royal Mages finally came out of their shocks. They looked at the artificial celestial body hanging high in the sky in awe, terrified as they thought of what if this ultimate magic was used as a weapon. It could cause damages that no magic spells nor strategic weapons could match because it was as horrible as natural disasters.
The mages calmed down and began to work. They checked the power of the entire magic tower and the signals from the security facilities in the city. They also studied how the Crimson Moon worked and the mystery behind it. It looked like some freaking black technology. But who knew what magic it could do to the GDP of Aerym if they found something out of it.
"The first phase is successful. The Crimson Moon has appeared and is stable. Begin to retrieve sensor signals.
"Moonlight is shining on the surface of planet New Aerym, and its energy is stable. No destructive power is detected. The moonlight is harmless.
"The range of illumination range is only confined to Minas Elenion and?area within?20 kilometers radius. No moonlight is detected beyond this range. The sensors in the corresponding area begin to move and switch to optical observation. Visual signal confirmed."
Messages appeared in the void before Hao Ren. The MDT reported the terrestrial observations in a synthesized voice as it projected the real-time images in the air.
Hao Ren had found many previously never-seen-before details of the Crimson Moon from a third-person perspective.
In real-time footage captured from the planet surface, Hao Ren saw a clear dividing line in the air. Blood-red moonlight filled one side of the dividing line while the other side was a typical night sky. It was as if there was an invisible barrier that kept the gauze-like moonlight within a specific range.
Hao Ren looked into space. The Crimson Moon was as if a crystal ball suspended quietly in space. It shone directly from space on the land below. In theory, its light should have covered the entire eastern half of the planet Aerym. But it did not. Moonlight was confined to only Minas Elenion and its immediate surroundings.
The Crimson Moon was not visible outside this era.
"It seems that the moonlight from space only focuses on the area surrounding Vivian, " MDT said."It is not a laser, but it has a similar nature: directionality, coherence, and high intensity. The light emission does not conform to the law of physics, and it is clear that it is not pure light. But more analyzes are needed to determine what it is."
"Directionality and coherence?" Hao Ren blinked."If we see the earth as a stage, Vivian will be the heroine under the spotlight."
"And she has a dedicated super-massive spotlight. It is overly massive."
Hao Ren looked at the red celestial body up ahead of the Petrachelys."It is half the size of the Moon."
The Crimson Moon, the secret of which had been unveiled for the first time, was no longer a mystery. It had become an observable, measurable, and analyzable physical object. In the space, the surface of this celestial body appeared blood red, and a neat pattern was clearly visible. These lines were what aroused curiosity in Hao Ren. It was entirely different from the crust folds on the surface of the usual solid planet. The pattern was more uniform, and the distribution was even. It was almost like sea waves, but it was still.
"The result of the preliminary analysis is ready, " the MDT said after a moment."Weird. Radar echoes showed that this celestial body is solid. But gravity sensors have not sensed any gravity."
Hao Ren frowned."No gravity? Gravity has failed here? Is it because it has no mass?"
"A physical celestial body with no mass? Yet another law-defying attribute." The MDT swayed from side to side."You will get F grade in physics with this observation. But nothing is impossible in this vast universe. I guess a gravity shield is shrouding the celestial body, which has mass and gravity. But the mass and gravity do not interact with the outside world."
Gravity shield—Hao Ren had heard it before. It was a technology that commonly super massive starships or space fortresses used. As these supermassive artificial objects were hundreds or even thousands of kilometer long, their gravity would cause interference to other objects nearby. It would pose a huge problem for smaller spacecraft that travel among these massive structures. So, most of these super-spacecraft and super fortresses were equipped with gravity shield to block off the gravitational force from affecting the objects flying around them. The phenomenon was similar to that of the Crimson Moon.
This technology was something out of fantasy to the less-developed civilizations. But after witnessing the K-series Sovereign Hub of the universe—three massive, artificial planetary fortresses, this phenomenon here did not surprise Hao Ren at all.
Hao Ren scratched his chin and said, "There is a gravitational interruption generator inside the Crimson Moon. But I think this possibility is even lower than the possibility that the Crimson Moon is a massless celestial body. This thing comes right out of Vivian's brain hole. Does she even understand how the gravitational interruption generator works? Who else could summon such a thing?"
"Who could even summon a planet?"
"You are right. Hey, is the Crimson Moon radioactive?"
"A low level of radioactivity has been detected, but it will cause no harm. Buddy, do you want to land?"
"Let's descend to a lower orbit and take a look."
The Petrachelys changed its angle of attack. It nosed down and flew toward the unknown red surface of the Crimson Moon.
The celestial body appeared larger and larger in Hao Ren's field of vision as it drew closer. Soon, it became a vast expanse of land. The Crimson Moon might be only half the size of the Moon, but it could still be regarded as a dwarf. When looking from a close-enough distance, the Crimson Moon did not look too different from an ordinary planet. Hao Ren flew the Petrachelys over the planet surface and released ship-mounted high-precision probes. Following that, a large number of images and data began to transmit to the imaging system on the flight deck.
"Can you what it is?" Hao Ren pointed to screen.
"Yes. It is an ocean. A red ocean."
"But it is still."
"Just like a holographic image, " said the MDT faintly.
The surface of the Crimson Moon appeared transparent, and it was apparently of liquid. The subtle and neat patterns, as seen from space, were ripples or rather ocean waves. But it was different from regular ocean waves. This one here was still.
It was not frozen, however. It looked like a still frame of ripples when someone pressed the paused button.
Underneath this liquid surfaces were shadows and areas of massive signal interference, which was indistinguishable by the shipborne radar.
With these various visions interlaid, it gave the illusion that the planet had a solid crust when looking from afar.
No wonder Lorrisa had sworn that she had seen the solid surface on the Crimson Moon.
| ← Ch. 1511 | Ch. 1513 → |