133: Chapter 132 The Truth of the Cradle and the Pulse of the Divine Remains

On the edge of the Chaos Concentration Zone, the "hidden blade" clung silently to the shadowed folds of a giant rock, like a crow's feather merging into the night. Inside the bridge, there was only the low hum of the decoder and the faint sound of Ashes' breathing.

Elena's fingers slid rapidly across the holographic control panel, performing spectral expansion, noise reduction, and pattern matching on the captured signal fragments. Once the billions of years of spacetime distortion and chaotic noise were stripped away, the fragmented cries for help from the "Cradle" gradually revealed their original outline.

"It's not a linguistic signal," Elena whispered, her eyes fixed on the reconstructed waveform. "It's a memory pulse. Before a certain high-level consciousness completely dissipated, it forcibly 'imprinted' its final mark of existence into the reality substrate of this area. The carrier of this pulse is not electromagnetic waves, but something more fundamental... the tremors of the reality structure itself."

Ashes' dark golden eyes reflected the data flowing on the console. "Can you decipher the content?"

"I'm trying... I need to build a reverse 'reality demodulation field.' By reverse-operating some functions of the Silent Curtain—not to hide information, but to 'develop' those imprints etched into the spatial structure." Elena looked at Ashes. "But this will consume a massive amount of energy and may create detectable spacetime ripples."

"How long until the Scavenger and the scout ship are expected to make contact?"

"According to the latest calculations, the main branch of the Scavenger will contact the periphery of the Chaos Concentration Zone in five hours and twenty-two minutes. The scout ship is faster, at three hours and forty-seven minutes." Elena brought up the timer. "If we complete the demodulation and re-cloak within one hour, the risk of exposure is controllable."

"Execute."

Subtle ripples spread across the absorbing coating on the surface of the "hidden blade." A crystalline probe extended from the bow, and its tip began to release an extremely orderly resonant field that was completely out of place in the surrounding chaotic environment. It was like gently pressing a sheet of white paper against a wall mottled by time, slowly tracing the texture of the plaster.

On the main console screen, the fragmented signals began to piece together.

First appeared a... light. Pure, gentle, and full of order, it filled every corner. The feeling this light gave was extremely similar to the milky radiance emitted by the Covenant "Cradle" node, but it was much older, much more primordial.

Within the light, many blurred shadows emerged. They possessed streamlined, non-fleshly bodies, with patterns made of light flowing across their surfaces, as if they themselves were the embodiment of order. They moved and collaborated within the light, constructing an incomparably magnificent structure—the prototypes of seven Spires connecting heaven and earth, surrounding a massive, forming spherical space at the center.

"This is..." Elena held her breath. "The construction site of the Covenant civilization's Cradle? No, the timing is wrong. This scene is much older than the records of the Talos Civilization."

"Continue," Ashes said.

The scene accelerated. The seven Spires were completed, and the spherical space at the center—that "Cradle"—began to emit stable resonant fluctuations. The orderly lifeforms in the light seemed to be performing some kind of celebration or ritual.

Then, a sudden change occurred.

At the edge of the light, a pitch-black wound ripped open without warning. It was not void, but something more unsettling than the void—surging chaos. Chaos poured out like a tide, and wherever it passed, the light of order was eroded, twisted, and assimilated into meaningless noise and fragmented geometric shapes. The orderly lifeforms fought back, their light patterns shining blindingly bright as they engaged in a brutal tug-of-war with the chaos.

The memory pulse became extremely painful and chaotic here. Only fragments could be captured:

— A massive sacrifice; countless orderly lifeforms voluntarily threw themselves into the chaos, using their own dissolution to temporarily "plug" the rift.

— Three of the seven Spires collapsed during the fierce battle.

— The central "Cradle" was contaminated by chaos, and its internal stable order field began to lose balance.

— Finally, the remaining orderly lifeforms made a desperate decision: they sealed the already contaminated "Cradle" together with the rift of the chaos source, and using the full energy of the remaining four Spires, cut the entire area out of the normal spacetime continuum and banished it into the dimensional gap.

The scene stopped abruptly here. The final image was the chaos-eroded, dim, and damaged "Cradle" slowly sinking into the depths of a "graveyard" composed of fragmented information and twisted reality. And that graveyard was exactly this "Chaos Concentration Zone" before them.

The console fell silent.

Elena slowly leaned back in her seat, her face pale. "So... the Covenant's 'Cradle' was not originally a protective facility. It was a sealing core, a cage used to suppress some 'chaos source.' And this ruin we are in right now is the battlefield graveyard that was cut off and banished back then."

Ashes' gaze fell on the colorful chaotic light outside the porthole. "Is that 'chaos source'... still down there?"

"The memory pulse has no follow-up. But according to the logic of the seal, if the Cradle is the sealing core, then its awakening or disturbance might cause the seal to loosen." Elena brought up the monitoring data of the pseudo-order source. "And we are using this pseudo-order source—a lure mimicking the Cradle's fluctuations—to create a commotion above this sealed site, attracting two high-threat units to fight."

The dance on the tip of a knife had suddenly turned into detonating explosives above a volcano.

"We must adjust the plan immediately." Ashes immediately connected to the encrypted channel in the direction of the Cradle, but the signal was severely interfered with while passing through the Chaos Concentration Zone, and only intermittent words came through: "...danger... source... stop Pseudo-Source..."

"The signal won't go through!" Elena tried to increase the transmission power, but it only attracted more intense chaotic noise interference.

"We are too close to the pseudo-order source; a strong signal transmission will directly expose us." Ashes watched the timer. "The Scavenger and the scout ship have entered the final approach stage. If we turn off the Pseudo-Source now, the Scavenger will immediately turn toward the Solar System, and the scout ship may also become alert. If we don't turn it off... the aftermath of the battle might wake up the thing buried below."

A dilemma.

"Is there a third option?" Ashes' dark golden eyes quickly scanned all the data on the console. "For example, modifying the fluctuation parameters of the pseudo-order source, changing it from 'mimicking the Cradle' to 'mimicking that chaos source'? If the Scavenger is attracted by incomplete order, then chaos itself should not have any attraction for it, and might even repel it. The scout ship will also hesitate due to detecting high concentrations of chaos."

Elena immediately began calculating. "Theoretically feasible! The Pseudo-Source projected by the Cradle is essentially a programmable resonant waveform. If we can parse out the characteristic frequency of the 'chaos source' from the memory pulse, even just the surface characteristics, and then overwrite the original order fluctuations... but we need a sample, we need to directly collect the residual radiation of the chaos source from below."

Go down. Enter that banished, ancient battlefield graveyard full of unknown dangers.

Ashes did not hesitate. "The 'hidden blade' has the Executive Court's top-tier stealth system and dimensional shields, so we can go deep for a short time. But we need coordinates, the most likely sealing core coordinates of the chaos source."

Elena compared the final image of the memory pulse with the current star map and locked onto an area located deep in the Concentration Zone where the chaotic radiation readings were abnormally high. "Here. The energy characteristics match the location where the Cradle sank in the memory."

"Go."

The "hidden blade," like a shadow, slid silently into that colorful, slowly surging sea of chaos.

Inside the Cradle, Zhao Yan finally received Ashes' intermittent warning message.

"...chaos... source... seal... stop Pseudo-Source... danger..."

The message was incomplete, but the keywords triggered the association protocol of the Cradle's archive. A large number of ancient records marked as "Top Secret" suddenly unlocked and flooded the main screen.

Zhao Yan, Zhou Zhe, and Lin Shen (via remote connection) simultaneously saw that piece of history which the Covenant civilization itself had deliberately blurred:

"The Primordial Era Cosmic Covenant (the predecessor of the Covenant), in order to curb the spread of the 'Chaos Divine Remains'—a cross-dimensional entity condensed from pure concepts of disorder, possessing an instinct to devour order—built seven 'Order Spires' and one central 'Harmonizing Cradle,' intending to seal and slowly purify the divine remains."

[part:gemini-3.0-flash]

"During the purification process, the divine remains underwent an unknown mutation, contaminating the Harmony Cradle and causing the Sealing Plan to fail. To prevent the spread of contamination, the Convention sacrificed the energy of three Spires, cutting and exiling the contaminated Cradle along with the main body of the divine remains into the dimensional gap (now the Chaos Concentration Zone)."

"The remaining four Spires were modified to become the base nodes of the 'web weaver protocol', continuing the secondary mission of maintaining order and buffering chaos. However, records regarding the Original Cradle and the divine remains were encrypted to prevent future generations from accidental contact."

The truth was revealed. The "Cradle" they were in was a simplified secondary node built later. The true Original Cradle, along with that terrifying "Chaos Divine Remains," was buried in the place that was about to become a battlefield.

"We must stop the Pseudo-Order Source Projection immediately!" Lin Shen's voice carried a rare urgency. "The Pseudo-Source mimics the order fluctuations of the current Cradle, and the fluctuation characteristics of the current Cradle likely share a common origin with the contaminated Original Cradle! This might be identified by the divine remains as a 'kin' or a 'key'!"

"If we stop the projection, the Scavenger will turn toward the Solar System." Zhao Yan looked at the branching path of the Scavenger on the star map that still hadn't disappeared, pointing toward the Solar System. "Moreover, Ashes and Elena have already gone deep into the concentration zone; their plan might need the Pseudo-Source as cover or a tool."

"Then modify the Pseudo-Source parameters and completely change its characteristics!" Zhou Zhe pulled up the projection control interface. "Cradle, can you immediately terminate the current projection and reprogram it into... completely neutral background noise fluctuations?"

The Cradle's runes responded:

"Projection termination requires a 17-minute buffer period to prevent the resonance channel from collapsing. Reprogramming requires significant modification based on existing templates, estimated to take 41 minutes. Total time: 58 minutes."

"Estimated contact time for the main branch of the Scavenger: 4 hours 06 minutes."

"Estimated arrival time of the scout ship: 2 hours 31 minutes."

Time was still tight, but there was an operational window.

"Execute," Zhao Yan ordered. "At the same time, try to contact Ashes and inform them of the new discovery. Once they've collected the chaos characteristics, if they can evacuate safely, have them leave the concentration zone immediately. If not... authorize them to use any necessary means to ensure the divine remains are not accidentally awakened."

The order was given. The Cradle began executing the projection termination and reprogramming protocols.

Just then, a new emergency report came from the medical team:

"Dr. Sarah's consciousness is experiencing a deep resonance phenomenon! The resonance target isn't node 2 or the probe... it's... it's the direction of the Chaos Concentration Zone! She is 'receiving' some kind of extremely ancient and painful... calling from there?"

The crystal of Sarah's consciousness was currently emitting a strange light, a blend of gloom and warmth. In her consciousness waveform, those "Inclusive Scars" formed by absorbing Entropy-Increasing Pollution were slowly resonating with a low-frequency pulse coming from deep within the concentration zone.

Zhou Zhe immediately checked the restart progress of the Nano-probes. The probe's basic logic matrix had recovered and was reloading the original data packets. But when Zhou Zhe injected Sarah's abnormal state and the new discoveries from the Chaos Concentration Zone as "environment update data packets," the probe's restart process suddenly paused.

On its surface, an extremely simple line of patterns appeared:

"High-priority associated event detected: 'Guardian Target' facing an unknown ancient threat."

"Requesting early termination of the standard restart process to load emergency response protocols."

"What emergency response protocol?" Zhou Zhe asked.

"Protocol name: Symbiotic Guardian Type-β." The probe's patterns began to change, no longer purely geometric shapes but taking on a soft curvature that mimicked Sarah's consciousness waveform.

"Protocol content: Temporarily graft this unit's logic core with the deep emotional structure of the 'Sarah Consciousness Unit' to form a Composite Consciousness Entity with high chaos resistance and ancient resonance analysis capabilities. Used to directly analyze information related to the threats in the Chaos Concentration Zone and find solutions."

"Risk: The grafting process may cause the boundaries between both consciousnesses to blur, with the possibility of mutual fusion that cannot be separated."

Another choice. To let the newly restarted probe with a blank memory bind even more deeply with Sarah once again, to face an ancient horror that even the Covenant civilization failed to resolve.

The crystal of Sarah's consciousness pulsed, transmitting a clear emotional image: determination, acceptance, and a gentle resolve to "face it together." She agreed.

Zhou Zhe looked at Zhao Yan and Lin Shen.

Lin Shen was silent for two seconds: "The technology tree system shows that this 'Composite Consciousness Entity' might be one of the effective tools for dealing with High-Dimensional Chaos Entities. But the success rate... is only 49%."

" Approval for implementation." Zhao Yan's voice was steady. "Record all data. If it succeeds, this might open a window for us to understand the nature of chaos. If it fails... we did our best."

The grafting procedure began. The Nano-probe's structure turned into flowing light, slowly merging into the crystal of Sarah's consciousness. No longer an external filter, it began to weave intricately with her emotional threads, memory fragments, and value judgments from within.

A form of consciousness never seen before began to gestate.

On Earth, the manufacturing of the Resonance Prisms encountered a new bottleneck.

Although collaborative manufacturing had increased output, the most recent batch of prisms began to exhibit a strange "fading" phenomenon. The stable light inside the crystals would slowly dim within a few hours after formation, as if something were siphoning their "order" from within.

Chu Yunshen checked all environmental variables but found nothing. Not until Lin Shen synchronized the intelligence about the discovery of the "divine remains" in the Chaos Concentration Zone.

"It's remote resonance pollution," Lin Shen analyzed. "Even while sealed, the disordered essence of the divine remains will continuously emit an 'anti-order' radiation. This radiation can cross dimensional gaps and slowly erode highly ordered structures. Our prisms, which happen to be highly ordered crystallizations of value, have become natural targets."

"Is there any way to protect them?"

"We need to add a 'Dynamic Equilibrium Shell' to the prisms." Lin Shen pulled up a new design just generated by the technology tree system. "The principle is similar to the Weaver; a buffer layer that can actively absorb and neutralize trace chaos disturbances is wrapped around the pure order core. But this requires a more complex manufacturing process and... a stronger 'will to protect' to activate the buffer layer."

This meant the manufacturing difficulty and time would increase further. And the threat of the Scavenger had not gone away.

"Adjust the plan," Lin Shen said to Chu Yunshen. "Divide the prisms into two models. Type A, with a high-purity core and a Dynamic Equilibrium Shell, will be manufactured by the most determined collaborative groups and deployed at key defense nodes. Type B, with a standard core, will serve as network filler and backups, deployed in secondary positions. At the same time, initiate a global 'Will Resonance' broadcast using the frequency of the green soil node to continuously reinforce the mental defenses of all manufacturers and future users. We cannot just defend against the physical; we must also defend against this invisible erosion of order."

New instructions were passed down. The exhausted people rallied their spirits again, beginning to try to understand and shape that more complex new type of crystal, which required encompassing a shred of "chaos-neutralizing" resilience within its protection.

Countdown: 3 hours 44 minutes.

The hidden blade went deep into the Chaos Concentration Zone, approaching the designated radiation core area.

The Cradle's Pseudo-Order Source Projection entered its termination buffer period.

The deep grafting of Sarah and the probe reached 67%.

In the Solar System, the first Type A prism with a Dynamic Equilibrium Shell, through the joint persistence of a three-person team, finally lit up with a steady light with great difficulty.

And in the deepest part of the Chaos Concentration Zone, in that darkness that had been sealed for eons, the "scab" on the surface of a colossal existence composed of pure disorder... due to the approaching disturbances of order and chaos above, very slightly...

Trembled.