Above The Sky
Chapter 290 - 290 276 Warp Travel and Aether Engine 23

290: Chapter 276: Warp Travel and Aether Engine (2/3) 290: Chapter 276: Warp Travel and Aether Engine (2/3) Of course, when recording the data on the Silver Chip, the youth still took a glance at the related designs of the Warp Engine and the Spark Armament.

Then, he slightly froze.

“Huh, as expected, it shares a design philosophy with the Aether Furnace Core.”

The Aether Furnace Core and the True Aether Furnace indeed inherited the same design philosophy, both utilized ultra-high purity Origin Quality, or simply absolute 100% purity, to create an Aether Bubble independent of the Natural Spiritual Energy Field, naturally drawing surrounding Spirit Energy towards itself.

For comparison, if the universe’s Natural Spiritual Energy Field is like a membrane roughly uniformly distributed across all of space-time, then the Aether Furnace Core is like creating a deep ‘well’ in this membrane.

Naturally, the well would gather surrounding Natural Spirit Energy, inexhaustible and endlessly usable.

The difference between the Aether Furnace and the True Aether Furnace lies in that the former has a flawed design, with an unstable Aether Bubble that, while absorbing Natural Spirit Energy, also imposes a load on the Furnace Core and the vessel, requiring a constant input of resources to maintain, and cannot sustain the bubble for a long period.

The latter, however, not only does not require that, but it can even transfer the load of Natural Spirit Energy onto the perfect Aether Bubble, loading nature itself with the forces of nature, thus allowing it to accumulate power almost indefinitely.

Compared to the True Aether Furnace of the Apocalypse Armament, the Spark Furnace Core actually doesn’t differ that much.

It’s just that it can exert more influence on the ‘Aether Bubble,’ thereby constructing extraordinary abilities like ‘Zero Inertia Maneuver,’ ‘Phase Transfer Shield,’ and ‘Hyperspace Communication.’

And the most important of all.

‘Warp Travel.’

Yes, warp travel is the technique derived by the Obera civilization using the colossal accumulation of Natural Spirit Energy within the Aether Bubble to distort space-time—the Warp Engine forms a space-time bubble around the spaceship, independent of the universe’s original space-time.

It doesn’t interact with any information from the universe.

Then, by indirectly manipulating the ‘Aether Bubble,’ it contracts the space-time ahead and expands it behind, generating an ‘asymmetric creeping field’ to propel the spaceship.

To put it simply, it’s a Superluminal Engine, and it does not require things like subspace or hyperspace channels, which are more dangerous and limited.

This technique has a lot in common with Aether Furnace technology.

It’s not so much that they are similar; it’s that because the Aether Furnace was developed, the technology for Warp Engines could be mastered.

“Does that mean, on Terra, the nations with Apocalypse Armaments…

as long as they are able to independently produce a brand new one, not by retrofitting an Aether Furnace from relics but manufacturing an Apocalypse Armament from scratch…

they are then only one small step away from superluminal travel?!”

Realizing this, Ian found it hard to contain himself—although he also knew that the so-called small step in key technological advancement often represented many years of inspiration burning through an entire civilization.

But from the perspective of the tech tree, the Terra civilization of the previous era was just a thin membrane’s distance away from becoming a true interstellar civilization capable of superluminal travel!

And the present Terra civilization was not far from interstellar civilization, either.

It’s just a pity, the majority of them only know how to use, not how to make.

There are nations that want to research, but the wars between them result in mutual sabotage, preventing the gathering of a planet’s population and the wisdom of researchers to carry out the study.

Of course, if it were the original Earth in question, if the Earth had Origin Quality and Aether as well, then Earth probably would have become a true interstellar civilization long ago—Earth doesn’t have anything as extraordinary as Aether Origin Quality.

Such a pity.

Thinking this, Ian satisfied his curiosity and continued to peruse the data repository.

This time, he was reviewing the Terra Star Chart.

It was the Primitive Star Chart from sixteen hundred years ago, before darkness had shrouded the stars!

The Primitive Star Chart had always been a point of doubt in Ian’s heart.

Since his birth, whether before or after awakening the memories of his previous life, he could not see the brilliant starry sky above the Terra Continent.

Unlike not being able to see stars due to severe light pollution, Terra’s inability to see was simply due to the ‘absence’ of stars.

Stars had vanished, leaving behind only a desolate and dim emptiness.

Of course, the absence of a brilliant starry sky didn’t mean one couldn’t see any stars at all.

In recent years, Ian did still find a few visible stars that were not Terra’s planets.

But, just like what was depicted on the star chart in the youth’s alchemy workshop, some of these stars were also disappearing consecutively.

Actually, these stars had long vanished, and what he was witnessing was just their light completely fading away.

“If there really is a cosmic disaster constantly destroying distant stars, then it’s quite understandable why the Obera star domain would send out Spark Ships…”

Exhaling deeply, Ian calmly took a moment, then opened the Relic Star Chart.

With the young man’s command, the dark curtain in front of him ignited like a dazzling, brilliant firework suddenly alight.

Endless starlight flickered; one by one, the radiant stars brightened before his eyes.

In that moment, Ian felt an illusion as if the civilizations swallowed by darkness were returning to the Star Sea along the reverse flow of time, re-emerging from the vast and endless obscurity of the universe.

On the star chart from sixteen hundred years ago, they were still burning with flames of life’s warmth, weaving dreams full of hope and future for each world.

Perhaps it wasn’t an illusion…

Prophets do not have illusions.

Closing his eyes, Ian remained silent for a while, as if reluctant to gaze upon the overly splendid starry sky.

Then he opened his eyes again and fixed his gaze on the star chart before him.

After a while, he found what he was looking for amidst those overly dense clusters of stars.

“It’s here.”

His gaze shifted, and Ian looked towards an unnatural dark void in this part of the starry sky, whispering softly, “Indeed, even in the pre-era, sixteen hundred years ago, there were stars that had extinguished, even forming a Great Void Zone.”

“Let me see…

Mm, there are even records of the timing when each star disappeared…

Indeed.”

“They vanished one by one at a uniform speed of light.”

Ian’s voice was so calm it didn’t sound like his own; he had never imagined that he could be so nonchalant when finally witnessing the ancient group of stars he had long anticipated.

Was it because he had imagined it countless times before?

Or was it that he wasn’t as excited or eager as he thought?

Ian didn’t know.

He just felt a coldness…

a pitch-black coldness approaching his spine, his vitals, and even his heart, forcing the young man to remain composed, to steady his mind.

Only then could he breathe.

The Great Void Zone had already been discovered by Terra’s scientific researchers, but because it was so difficult to explain, it had been attributed to ‘interstellar dust’ obscuring that region.

This could barely explain why the stars in that direction dimmed one after the other, but it couldn’t explain how vast a region of interstellar dust would be needed to cover the vast Galaxy spanning thousands of light-years.

This also couldn’t explain why there would be a pitch-black, opaque cloud of mist moving uniformly at the speed of light, blocking out all the starlight.

Thus, some suggested that some kind of cosmic calamity was slowly approaching…

but the data on this was very incomplete, as if someone had deliberately deleted it.

“It’s not that Terra is being obscured by something—it’s truly that distant stars are gradually disappearing, from few to many, from having to none.

Constellations that overlapped are dimming in succession…

and not vanishing simultaneously.”

“And someone deliberately deleted this?

Why do that?

Even if there truly is a cosmic calamity destroying the stars one by one, it’s not something shameful— at most, it would call for concealment from the public.”

Etching these conclusions in his mind, Ian’s brow furrowed as he continued to observe the complete spherical star chart: “In any case, we can’t rule out the possibility that Terra is also being obscured by something, after all, nobody knows what happened during the sixteen-hundred-year gap.”

“To the universe, sixteen hundred light-years is not a lot, but it’s not a little either.

But once the surrounding stars have all dimmed, the next target, undoubtedly, would be Terra.”

“Perhaps…”

It was then that Ian somewhat understood why Inega II was so urgent.

Yes, if Inega II had also seen the star charts of pre-era civilizations and then compared them to today’s skies…

Anyone would feel an uncontrollable fear, wouldn’t they?

A few decades or a hundred years may seem long for a person’s lifespan, but in cosmic terms, it’s merely a moment.

And because dozens or hundreds of years are also just a moment to the universe, humans feel anxious about it.

— Whether it’s decades, centuries, millennia, or the very next moment, destruction could arrive at any time.

Ordinary people can comfort themselves by saying the sun will rise tomorrow as usual, while those in the know understand that every second could be the moment just before the end of the world.

Thus, they cannot endure, cannot halt, cannot slowly pursue reform.

One can only keep moving, keep progressing, to find peace of mind.

To comfort themselves…

that before destruction arrives, they at least tried.

At this moment, the last time Ian looked up at the firmament came unbidden to his mind.

The pitch-black universe, the almost completely dark night sky, the fragmented New Moon, and the only moonlight…

All of this, as if announcing a fact to all beings on the Terra Continent.

— The next one will be you.