Chapter 150: Elemental Annihilation! [Seeking Recommendation Votes]
The expansion of the Undead has become increasingly severe.
However, Soren had many tasks to accomplish. While taking advantage of the buffer period after defeating the Demon God of Fear, he set his sights on the Astral Realm.
The first target was naturally the Diamond Asteroid.
Within the boundless Astral Sea, there were numerous meteorites where material transformation occurred. Some fell as meteors onto the Material Plane. The largest diamond mine in the southern countries was created from the impact of a certain meteorite. However, it is controlled by the Wizard Alliance and has been nearly depleted after centuries of mining. Diamonds are a common and rare material that wizards need because they can be cut into gemstones, and they hold immense value among mortals, much adored by many noblewomen. Soren’s need for diamonds wasn’t for monetary exchange but rather because diamonds are consumed heavily in high-end alchemical experiments and the creation of legendary golems.
Why does Modo City only have this few Diamond Golems until now?
Is it due to a lack of high-level Soul Crystals? Soren could obtain quite a few high-tier Soul Crystals in both the Bottomless Abyss and the Material Plane.
The key issue lies with the diamonds.
To put it bluntly, the production of diamonds in the Material Plane is limited, and their value is exorbitantly high. Purchasing through conventional channels would sufficiently empty Modo City’s treasury. Artificially synthesized diamonds could theoretically be done, though it would require significant resources and time; witches can only create minuscule diamonds through elemental annihilation.
Thus, plundering resources from the Astral Realm became an imperative!
Both the Northern Witches and the Wizard Alliance have never ceased exploring the Astral Realm over the long course of time, and the powerful beings from other planes also consider the Astral Realm as a primary target.
Astral Wanderers serve as a benchmark for measuring high-level legends.
Modo City.
After delegating the matters that needed handling during this time, Soren pinpointed the portal marker on the scroll and prepared to check the situation on that asteroid first.
“Do you need me to accompany you?”
Gloria, seated on a wide, soft, velvet-upholstered chair, gently lifted her long hair and said, “Maybe I can help a little.”
Soren shook his head, “No need.”
“Modo City still needs you to hold down the fort, and that Astral Wanderer might sell information. This matter is definitely not that simple.”
The unknown signifies danger.
This time, Soren did not set out in his true form but instead created an avatar with roughly eighty percent of his original strength, leaving himself behind in the Arcane Tower.
“Then I’ll help you open the portal,” Gloria stated as she stood up.
Soren did not object this time. Since he was inclined to save a bit of divine power by triggering the spell, he had a feeling there might be dangerous things on that asteroid; otherwise, the adversaries wouldn’t so easily give up.
A white light appeared.
After nodding to Gloria, Soren’s avatar stepped directly into the portal!
………………
The boundless sea of the Astral Realm.
As soon as Soren stepped out of the portal, he found himself enveloped by a circle of white light. This place is within the range of the Astral Sand, a silvery river that sprawls around the Astral Realm, and is a very special material. The asteroid had just entered the Astral River, and as soon as Soren arrived there, he felt a looming sense of danger—a colossal creature was swimming not far away.
——“Astral Leviathan!”
A unique life form of the Astral Realm, it resembled the whales of the Material Plane to some extent, but its body could exceed a thousand meters in length, with the largest potentially reaching ten thousand meters. It is a dangerous creature that roams the Astral Realm.
They are the native inhabitants of the Astral Realm.
A strong sense of crisis surged, and Soren immediately felt a twinge of pain, followed by a barrage of alarming data prompts:
“Strong radiation detected!…”
“Triggering forced exemption check!… Constitution exemption failed!… Toughness exemption failed!… Under high-intensity radiation effects!… You now take 10 points of radiation damage per second!…”
An invisible energy field enveloped Soren.
This was the energy radiation from the asteroid. The annihilation of material brought forth a terrifying energy, and even his divine avatar could not exempt itself from such high damage. For mortals, the consequences would be unimaginable.
“Damn it!”
“How could there be such strong radiation here?!”
Soren cast a protective energy shield over himself, but the effect was not very good; the invisible radiation continuously harmed him. Even with his incredible vitality, he could not endure for too long and had to continually cast spells and heal himself.
He tried to move forward, but it was incredibly difficult, and he could not help but exclaim, “Such high gravity?!”
The gravity here was frighteningly high.
This asteroid had a gravity far exceeding that of the Material Plane, even higher than that of the Earth Element Plane. Soren’s initial estimation suggested the gravity here was over fifty times that of the Material Plane!
This meant that it would be extremely difficult for an ordinary warrior to walk here.
“Is this going to turn into a white dwarf?”
Soren chuckled self-deprecatingly. The gravity of a white dwarf was far more terrifying, typically exerting a gravitational force billions of times that of the Material Plane, essentially requiring a pure energy form to reach it. Even most elements would be affected, implying that even atoms and electrons would be impacted.
Although the composition of the multiverse differs, certain aspects remain quite similar.
In this world, there exists a substance called Annihilation Material, found at the edges of the Bottomless Abyss and Twisted Void. It is an extremely rare material, and Soren had a little bit in his possession.
Some Annihilation Material could be as small as a thumbnail, but its weight could exceed dozens of kilograms.
These phenomena are caused by Elemental Collapse. According to his previous knowledge, Soren knew that matter consists of molecules, atoms, and electrons. What seemed to be seamless was actually filled with space internally, and compressing these spaces could lead to elemental annihilation, shrinking a massive object to a very small size.
Some artifacts may seem small but are incredibly heavy, while some items may appear tiny yet can grow to enormous sizes, all tied to these unique phenomena.
“One undeniable point!”
Soren looked down at the crystallized ground beneath his feet, murmuring, “This asteroid seems to have once traversed through the Twisted Void. Due to elemental annihilation, its size has undergone a tremendous reduction!”
A planet of such small size.
Yet its gravity reached over fifty times that of the Material Plane, allowing him to roughly estimate its original size, likely hundreds of times larger. Possibly due to the Twisted Void or other reasons, the elements within this planet underwent collapse, rendering them akin to molecules and atoms from his previous life, and their structure has been completely altered.
“The gravity hasn’t exceeded ten thousand times yet.”
“So the change should be on a molecular level; the internal atoms must also be distorted. However, according to the laws of this world, the altered minor materials should all be referred to as elements.”
The arrangement of matter contains gaps and rules, but if the smallest things are tightly compressed, fundamentally, they begin to change. It’s similar to Earth; if elemental collapse occurred based on the rules of this world, molecules and atoms would be crushed together, allowing the volume of an Earth-sized mass to shrink to tens of thousands of times smaller.
“Supergravity!”
“Super strong radiation!”
Soren felt around and murmured, “No wonder that Astral Wanderer gave up exploration!”
With such powerful gravity, even spellcasting professions found it challenging to walk here. After taking a few steps, even Soren experienced difficulty. He was not yet in his divine form, unable to fully immunize against the effects of gravity. Fifty times the gravity was enough to kill any ordinary person reaching this place directly.
“The elements have crystallized!”
A golden gleam appeared at Soren’s fingertips as he cut out a piece of structure from the small asteroid before him. This half-crystalized material was pale white and only about the size of a fist, but it weighed more than steel. He murmured, “If the surface has collapsed this severely, then the interior should have undergone complete elemental annihilation!”
“Annihilation Material seems to carry gravitational effects.”
“In other words, there’s a high likelihood that a sizable Annihilation Core has been born inside this asteroid!”
Once elemental annihilation occurs.
The weight of matter of the same volume would exceed thousands of times its original, and the unusual radiation and gravity of this asteroid should have resulted from it.
“How do I transport this back?”
The scenery around him rapidly retreated. The asteroid continued on its original trajectory. It wouldn’t be difficult for Soren to bring it back, but without measures to reduce its kinetic energy before directly teleporting it back, it would destroy the entire Overseas Islands.
This thing crashing into the Material Plane would be far more shocking than an atomic bomb!
“Let’s first see what’s inside!”
Soren contemplated and used divine power to transform into a long sword, directly slicing open the surface of the asteroid. The crystallized surface was remarkably solid, feeling as impenetrable as armor. After cutting through about twenty meters of thickness, he discovered traces of diamonds.
Not the scattered kind.
But rather enormous, fully formed diamonds, some of which were so large they were beyond estimation, with the smallest being the size of a fist.
This value was simply incalculable!
Soren’s expression was filled with astonishment as he muttered to himself, “The elemental collapse has indeed led to the birth of a substantial number of diamonds! The value of this asteroid is utterly beyond estimation; if transported back, Modo City could produce Diamond Golems on a massive scale.”
“But.”
“If I want to transport it back safely, I can’t do it without spending divine power.”
Its size is not small.
Its weight is astonishing.
Soren realized he had only one option for transportation: to guide it using divine power, while also ensuring it was not placed in the Material Plane due to the destructive capabilities being too severe.
“What if I use divine power to guide and reduce the impact, then set up a magic circle for cushioning and transport it to the Shadow Plane?”
Soren fell into deep thought. Undoubtedly, this would also bring considerable disaster to the Shadow Plane, but it would certainly be much less than the Material Plane. His most feasible plan at present was to send it to near the laboratory on the Shadow Plane, where he would expend a few hundred points of divine power to reinforce the nearby space and material to withstand the impact from the asteroid’s fall.
Soren is the God of Shadows.
If he harnesses the power of the plane, he should be able to minimize the consequences.
……………… (To be continued ~^~)
