The Record of Unusual Creatures

The void was endless. It was everything there and everything beyond it. It was the union of the known and the unknown. It was a collection of all things and all things beyond. Dark tides surged in this boundless realm. Every time the tide rose and fell, countless worlds were born and annihilated. The Plane of Dreams, the Surface World, or any other universe was nothing but a bubble in the void.

However, it was this bubble that gave birth to endless and brilliant scenes. The soulless, the spiritual, the ignorant, the intelligent, the countless natural phenomena, the intelligent races in this bubble that shaped the worlds, and gods were moved by every line of scenery in those worlds.

It was the first time Rheia had seen anything like it.

For a long time, she was trapped in her own little universe. All she could see was a horizon that was measured through mathematical reasoning. Even with divine power, she could just vaguely sense the edge of the universe and the weak fluctuations of information beyond the edge. She had relied on her calculations and reasoning to conclude that there were still new worlds out there. But today, for the first time, she was able to see with her own eyes those landscapes, which had previously existed only in mathematical formulas and theoretical models.

Countless nebulae, kingdoms, and universes stretched out across the water beneath her feet, and as some of them grew clearer, their destinies were also reflected in her mind. She saw the history and future of these worlds as if she had witnessed them herself. Although the distance between her and the worlds and had reached a scale that could not be described mathematically, everything looked real.

Then, she heard her mother’s voice in her head.

“This is called the Great Nebula. Ten thousand years ago it was called the Warring Galaxy. The whole universe was almost like a battlefield. More than a hundred civilizations existed here. They were all mortal, and their opponents were a group of crazy gods…

“This is Hessonwood-Redmond. More than a dozen intelligent races lived on this binary star system. The development of their civilization didn’t even break through the space bottleneck, but they faced a catastrophe big enough to cause the end of the world. They’ve been around for a thousand years even before the gods were aware of their world.

“The planet has been destroyed. I personally guarded it for tens of millions of years. My body was the seal, and the planet covered me like a tomb. There was a human civilization on my ‘grave’, but after the destruction of the seal, the civilization was destroyed in an instant. However, the survivors built a shelter on a nearby planet. Now, 10,000 years later, they’re about to launch deep-space ships to the edge of space. A single planetary disaster is nothing to them.”

“So many… So many worlds, so many disasters…” Rheia was a little shocked.

“The number of worlds is infinite. But for many people who live their entire lives on a tiny planet, the vast universe does not mean much. The piece of land they live in is their whole world, and when they are faced with disasters on that piece of land, they explode with an unimaginable will to survive—because to them, that’s all they have.

“So, I want to correct you. Sure, you protect them, but you’re not just a protector. Because ‘protector’ is a word too lofty. It means looking down and giving from one single side. And mortals are stronger than you think. Even if there is no god, they will protect their homeland and will be even more determined than you. So it is more accurate to say that you are not protecting mortals, you are protecting their world with them.

“You feel obligated to protect mortals. That is good because the sense of responsibility has always been a good quality of a god, but do not use this sense of responsibility to cover the efforts of ordinary people. This will blind you, and blindness is often the first step on the wrong path.”

Rheia felt like she had understood something. She nodded, looking slowly at the surface of the water beneath her feet, the universes rising and dying under her gaze. Gradually, the picture on the surface of the water changed again, and the voice rang in her head.

“Now, let me teach you the second thing, about the parts that we cannot save. You’ve seen the world struggling to survive the end of time. But in fact, there have been many more worlds that have failed to carry through. Not even a tiny residue is left of them. They can only leave a number in the archives of extinct civilizations.”

The scenes on the surface of the water were changing rapidly. Rheia saw ruins, debris, and broken walls. There was debris floating around in the universes, jagged steel ruins on planets, and giant torn-apart starships, floating alone. Those starships probably meant a failed escape.

Time had worn away steel and tombstones; cities and ships had been reduced to dust, yet there were no survivors, no descendants of civilization to rebuild them.

More and more similar images emerged, and each group of images ended with darkness. A black cross mark was their final note, and there was only one word under the mark: canceled.

Finally, Rheia saw a huge cylindrical space. It was endless. Countless neat crystal lattices were floating in the cylindrical area, and numerous shadowy figures were shuttling through space, storing things in the crystal lattices. Due to some inexplicable intuition, she suddenly looked in a certain direction, and the lattice at the end of her line of sight became vivid.

She saw some words floating in front of the lattice.

“The Plane of Dreams – Tannagost. Civilization status: Extinct. Archived by: Hao Ren”

“…I remember that name…” Rheia was a little surprised to see it.

“Although they were destroyed, they resisted resolutely. Some of the lucky ones managed to leave a few words in the record or a few descendants, but most of them only left behind a serial number. Doomsday is happening every minute in the endless void, and the number of ‘tombstones’ in this archive will continue to grow day by day, even if the gods and everyone fight to the death. So, do you think there’s any point in our efforts under the premise that these worlds are doomed to be destroyed?”

There was, of course, Rheia wanted to say. But she could not help remembering her negative thoughts.

“You are hesitating because you see the problem.” The tall figure gazed quietly into Rheia’s eyes. “We may not be able to save everything, and sacrifice may be inevitable, but our fight has never been a clear-cut deal. People fight because they do not want to die. We fight because we do not want to see them die. Such motivation is enough, and as for the result… does it really matter?”

Rheia clenched her fist silently and whispered, “I think I understand.”

“No, you haven’t quite gotten it yet,” interrupted the Dark Valkyrie, “because all I’ve told you so far is some general principles. Principles are useful, of course, but their power is limited. Now, let me tell you something more practical than that.

“We fight and die to kill an enemy, not just for some general principles, but for a more important reason—rage.”

“Huh?”

“We want to protect something, but someone is trying to do the opposite, trying to destroy what we are protecting, so we get very angry. And rage is the first thing that motivates us to kill our opponents. No matter what, as long as this feeling exists, we absolutely have no reason to stop!

“A qualified god fights to the death after targeting his or her enemies. We confront our enemy from the front, destroy him with all our strength and crush him. If he runs away, we pursue him to the ends of the void. If he defends, we smash his defense. If he revives himself 10,000 times, we kill him every time he comes back to life. If he dares to spread his evil influences everywhere, we cut down every shred of his power. These means of violence are necessary for justice.”

Rheia’s eyes slowly brightened.

“Now my child, tell me, isn’t that Mad Lord irritating you?”

“Yes, very much!”

“Will you give up because your career was ruined and your achievements were destroyed?”

“Absolutely not!”

“Are you willing to fight for your slaughtered people and kill your enemies?”

“Absolutely, yes!”

“Very well, it seems that you are ready for justice.” The Dark Valkyrie smiled and looked approvingly at Rheia. “Then turn to page one, chapter one, the Origin and Definition of the Gods—highlight the whole text and prepare for the final exam.”

Rheia was speechless.

In another world far away, in the office of another god, Hao Ren looked at the goddess before him with some suspicion. “Do you think what the Dark Valkyrie left in the book really works?”

“Definitely,” said Raven 12345, waving her hand. “That’s her mother after all. Putting that aside, let’s talk about the Umbral Realm…”