Soul of Burning Steel

sacrifice.

The foundation of civilization rests on sacrifice.

The hunter's blood was spilled on the wilderness full of beasts, and the soldiers' bones were scattered on the ancient battlefield. When they had to fight against powerful alien races, it was the voluntary sacrifice of the brave, allowing more people to survive the attack.

From the oldest bark book, we can know that Chaos existed tens of thousands of years ago. At that time, our species had no magic, no battle qi, no ether, no psionic power, and of course, no holy light. We had nothing at that time, and we had to sacrifice if we wanted to win the right to life.

Tens of thousands of years ago, our ancestors fought and poured blood and viscera on the fertile soil of civilization—we continued to sacrifice and move forward, heroes held up banners and led countless people forward on the bones of the forerunners, our blood So that a new generation can be born and the blood can be continued. Even though our civilization has found one powerful force after another in constant battles, the aura of mana and fighting spirit shines like a lighthouse, illuminating the future of our civilization, but the cornerstone of the lighthouse is still countless ancestors Sacrificial skeletons.

Zessel was flipping through the ancient books. This creature with two rows of eyes, four arms, and its lower body wriggled like a snake was surrounded by spiritual fluctuations visible to the naked eye. It silently read the ancient history recorded in the books in its hands. , completely oblivious to how noisy the surrounding environment is.

"The Mycroft civilization has been completely revived—it's not a trivial matter, their warships flew through the void and came to the very edge of the galaxy!"

"The last time we tracked down the ancient dragon in the abyss, we should have noticed that it is possible to dispatch multiple 'legends' at the same time—that's what they call them?—the power of legendary super life forms, except for those demon overlords in the abyss, there are only They're gone."

"Chaos is recovering, and we have detected the waves of the evil gods... Although the waves were quickly suppressed by Mrs. Micro, they will definitely come back, just like they have awakened."

"Would it be the return of Chaos that led to Mrs. McCrom's recovery, or the recovery of Mrs. McCrom that made Chaos decide to return?"

"Don't forget, compatriots, it is precisely because of the arrogance of 'theirs' back then that we have to shrink back to this point and linger on!"

This is a meeting that will decide the future fate of the Chartres civilization.

Beside the huge oval conference table, elites from Chartres, leaders and scholars are debating fiercely, trying to convince each other.

Perhaps there are not many civilizations in the multiverse who remember the name Shatelites, but if you say 'Star God', then there must be a lot of races who will show an expression of enlightenment and become vigilant.

Star God—a behemoth that once ruled dozens of star fields in the central galaxy. This civilization has been fighting against chaos since its birth. In the year when man stepped into the void and claimed to be a god, they completely wiped out that hotbed of chaos, and placed its last wreckage as their own spoils in the very center of the central hall.

The people of Chartres are lucky, and the people of Chartres are also unlucky. Fortunately, there are no other more powerful terrifying beasts around their mother world except for a lair of Chaos Familia. The civilization of desire was born in this galaxy with the Mycroft civilization and Sanctuary civilization.

Young civilizations who have not experienced that era will never imagine the despair and fear of that era.

The stars and star fields they have observed, the stories and legends they have imagined, and the ancient constellation stories are just small stars in the territory of super civilizations, long before their civilizations were still fighting with beasts. Today, the super-civilized void warships have already sailed across the sky above their world, and even watched the sacrifices and struggles of their ancestors.

They were able to step out of the void only because the void civilization in the central star field did not have the habit of destroying seedlings, and the chaos invasion they regarded as the enemy was just a low-level threat that could not even infect a single world.

The arrogant Chartres have learned to develop in a low-key manner after hitting a wall several times. They no longer show xenophobia, but gradually turn neutral, because they know that civilizations that reject other civilizations will only be crushed by stronger civilizations like ants Death, several extreme civilizations used their own destruction to teach the Chartres a lesson, and the most conspicuous of them is an artificial intelligence civilization-those metal heads that kill everything, enough to wipe out the Chartres. He hesitated to bump into the Mycroft civilization, which was obsessed with its own great wonders. As a result, the entire fleet was smashed into fly ash by a powerful god.

Gradually, they began to expand, and began to try to catch up with the most advanced civilizations. In this regard, they did not mind other civilizations learning from their Sanctuary civilization, and the drafters of this huge federation invited the Chartres to join them Sanctuary, while the Mycroft civilization is immersed in its own world. They rule a vast territory, but they would rather create demiplanes and wonders one after another, rather than rule those flying planes that are too far away. land.

"One day, distance will no longer be distance, and we will master the boundless deep space."

This was Mrs. Mycro's favorite saying at that time, these furless second-hand bipedal upright creatures were so arrogant that they didn't bother to look down at other civilizations, even if the territory of the Chartres extended to In their eyes, there are tens of star domains, and they are just a well-developed child.

And in fact.

Their arrogance is not arrogance, but a fact.

By the time the people of Chartres realized this, it was too late.

Darkness is coming.

The bright Milky Way is shrouded in shadows.

Countless evil gods and demons have descended on the entire galaxy, and an unimaginable number of chaotic monsters have swept across thousands of worlds. Because of this, the fate of the civilization of the Chartres has been completely changed.

The fleet collapsed, the fortress collapsed, and under the attack of multiple evil gods, the star god civilization that seemed to be thriving collapsed one after another. They were defeated in every battle. First, the farthest enclave, and then the colonies around the central star field, were sweeping In front of the incoming tide of chaos, the flames of civilization were extinguished one by one, and the entire galaxy turned into a pitch-black dark field.

The people of Chartres are lucky and unlucky.

Fortunately, perhaps because of luck, or because they did have a destiny, no evil gods went to attack them, but just the attack of the family members, at least the defense of the mother galaxy was maintained.

Unfortunately, except for the mother galaxy, tens of billions of Chartres colonists died completely, their souls dissipated, and their bodies decayed, becoming food or energy sources for the Chaos Familia.

So, they are blocked.

The Chartres blocked their home planet and locked their civilization in a world. They trembled like ostriches, with the mentality of 'I can't see you and you can't see me', desperately wanting to get through this cold winter.

In fact, they succeeded.

Thousands of years later, the name of the Chartres is still there, unlike other civilizations that have been reduced to ashes and scorched earth.

Zessel closed the ancient book in his hand, then looked up at the conference table that was still arguing.

"stop fighting."

It said in a deep voice, and following the words of this powerful Chartres, the entire meeting table fell silent: "If we say that before, they didn't come to us because of disdain. Now, they don't come to us, just Because there is no time now."

"We actually have no choice at all—since the Mycroft civilization has reappeared, it's only a matter of time before they find us...Whether it's equal communication or extortion of resources, do you think we have a choice?"

Zessel laughed softly: "The weak never have a choice, so it's better to choose the time yourself."

Other people from Chartres nodded and shook their heads, but no one raised any objection.

This is a little bit of privilege that Zessel, as the strongest civilization, can have.

"Isn't this really exposing yourself actively..."

There was still a voice, which echoed softly in the conference room. This voice was a little unwilling: "Chaos reappears, why don't we continue to hide? We don't have the strength to fight those monsters again..."

What greeted those words was Zessel's icy stare.

The Chartres waved his hand, creating a huge light curtain in the center of the conference table. The light curtain flickered, and then showed the current appearance of the Chartres mother world.

It can be seen that this is a small continental world, sea water occupies 60% of the world, and the continent only accounts for 40%.

The meeting room of the Chartres is located at the top of a 2,000-meter-high skyscraper.

And similar skyscrapers are densely packed, as dense as fungal hyphae, like a beehive, occupying 30% of the mainland, and most of the other 70% are covered by a large number of super giants. The building occupies.

Industrial and population pollution have turned the coastal waters into gray-black, and the clouds in the sky are gray-brown and highly corrosive. Hundreds of billions of Shatelites are piled up in this small world, and they wear similar protection. The mouthpiece of the mask squirmed among the sky bridges and pipelines. There was no hope at all in his eyes, only the deepest numbness.

sacrifice.

For the continuation of civilization, the people of Chartres have sacrificed too much.

When the last golden fleet of the Chartres was cut off for the retreating migrant ships, everyone believed that it was the last sacrifice—just like the brave men who stood up to protect their homeland in ancient times, for the lives of more people, Choose to let yourself die.

But it wasn't until the migrant ships arrived in the mother world, and billions of people lived on this small continent at the same time, that they understood the true meaning of sacrifice.

——When survival itself has become a kind of torture, loving death is just a choice. Since everything can’t be worse than the present, why not try to take the initiative to go out and choose a more possible future?

"If we say that we take the initiative to go out, we can barely find a chance for the people of Chartres." Zessel looked up, staring at the starry sky that has become extremely dim compared to thousands of years ago, and said helplessly: "Then continue We have no future in this dying world."

Chartres is not alone in making similar choices.

first update