Chapter 2293: Unnatural Darkness The Battle of Ulimo Citadel took an unexpected turn! Somehow, the Nyxian pirates caused the besieged stronghold and a wide area around it to become engulfed in an anomalous hazard! While Ves, the Black Cats and the other analysts of the Larkinson Clan guessed that the pirates might resort to drastic measures, this was something else. Who knew that the Dry Snakes were crazy enough to call upon the most fearsome phenomenon of the Nyxian Gap. Ves and the Larkinson Clan had never encountered such a drastic means of flipping the board! For a few seconds on the bridge of the Scarlet Rose, everyone looked shocked as the main visuals depicted an ominous, shadowy sphere enveloping the entire battlefield. It was as if some incomprehensible monster took a bite out of space! Horror and confusion began to spread throughout the ships and the few hundred mechs that the Larkinson Clan kept in reserve. "What is going on?!" "Are.. are they gone? Just like this?" "We have lost all communications with the units engulfed in the unknown anomaly!" "We need to rescue our brothers right away!" "Don't panic! Everything can be explained!" Throughout the fleet, the hundreds of scientists and engineers attempted to interpret the confusing sensor data. The sensor readings made little sense, as most of the sensors had never been designed to observed such an abnormal phenomenon to begin with! What had happened exceeded the Larkinson Clan's comprehension by a huge margin! Ves joined the frenzy as well. Even though he did not specialize in astrophysics or any other field related to spatial phenomena, he tried his best to decipher what was going on. It was too bad that he failed to spot a discernable pattern that he could use to figure out this anomaly! For several minutes, Task Force Predator attempted various moves. Several ships dispatched small, disposable drones and sent them through the sphere. They were never heard from again. The connection to the drones cut off. Even when these devices received instructions to leave the sphere immediately afterwards, somehow each of them failed to emerge from the anomaly. "What about sending a ship? Maybe we can still maintain contact through the quantum entanglement node." "Are you stupid?!" A chief engineer spat. "Many anomalies in the Nyxian Gap completely garble the connection between quantum entangled particles!" Though more clansmen began to suggest they should enter the anomalous region in order to rescue their trapped compatriots, the risks were far too great to make such a reckless move. Sending in the entire fleet might potentially doom Task Force Predator entirely! What puzzled Ves was how the pirates could possibly have such a trump card in reserve. After several weeks of probing and infiltration, the Black Cats should have figured most if not all of the strengths of Ulimo Citadel. How could they have missed something as dramatic as this move!? He decided to call the leader of the Black Cats. Her projection depicted a spymaster who was out of her comfort zone. She looked devoid of her usual poise, and her customary smirk was nowhere to be seen. "Calabast! What is going on!?" "We are investigating the circumstances. Prior to our attack, we truly haven't found any indications that the Dry Snakes or their subordinate forces are capable of evoking an anomalous hazard on command. We have even researched every independent pirate outfit for abnormal capabilities, but as far as we know, they are all ordinary." "Have you investigated any other unusual people or organizations at Ulimo?" Ves pressed. "We have, but none of them appear capable of evoking such a huge movement." Her answer didn't satisfy him at all. Frustration welled in him as he was lacking a huge amount of answers. The longer this anomaly stayed active, the greater the chance that he would lose most if not every mech deployed into battle. If it came down to it, losing thousands of mechs was an acceptable price. Though Ves valued mechs a lot as a principle, they were built for a purpose. He could always build new machines as long as he gained access to some production facilities in the Nyxian Gap. What truly pained him was the prospect losing the lives of the mech pilots who were trapped inside the anomaly! Such a huge loss not only meant that Task Force Predator would permanently lose a lot of battle strength. This would make it very difficult for the fleet to defend itself against vengeful pirates. In addition, Ves would have huge pressure in the clan if he returned to civilized space with just a fraction of his fighting forces. His young and fragile clan would not be able to stomach such a heavy blow! As he kept staring at the boiling sphere of darkness and shadows, Ves suddenly made a small realization. How did the pirates manage to evoke such a big anomaly in the first place? Through technology? Unlikely! Not even the Big Two could make heads or tails of them. Otherwise, they would have swept the entire Nyxian Gap clean of pirates by now! Their warfleets wouldn't have chosen to avoid this dangerous region like the plague! Ever since the previous incident, Ves hypothesized that anomalies in the material realm might be tied to activity in the imaginary realm. This meant that this anomaly might have been evoked through spiritual means! Ves briefly ignored Calabast and everything else and concentrated his mind. He projected a part of his consciousness in the imaginary realm. "Ah!" As expected, something new had appeared in the imaginary realm! An identical dark sphere had appeared. The corrosive winds that spun in the motion of the huge vortex seemed to crash against the sphere before parting aside. The nature of this anomaly was different than the one that appeared in the previous incident! Unfortunately, this didn't really help him that much. He cautiously attempted to probe the sphere in the imaginary realm, only to feel that he had completely lost contact with the tiny spiritual projection he sent inside. The phenomenon in the imaginary realm seemed to behave identical to the phenomenon in the material realm! The two were unquestionably tied together! Ves began to grow suspicious as he retracted his concentration. "Calabast.. have you performed any investigations on the cults and religions in Ulimo Citadel?" Her projection blinked. "We have, but their footprint isn't big. The typical church or cult has only attracted a few dozen to a hundred worshippers in the public marketplace section. The Dry Snakes and its subordinate pirate groups aren't religious in nature." "The quantity or presence of the religious organization isn't important. Which one has the biggest or most mysterious background?" Calabast briefly ran through the gathered intelligence. "Of all of the known cults in Ulimo, the Hallowed Abyss Temple is the most mysterious and influential. They occupy a small shrine in the most coveted area of Ulimo's public section. From what we have gathered, the local branch of the Hallowed Abyss Temple is highly insular and doesn't amount to more than nine members." "Tell me more about the Hallowed Abyss Temple." "While their presence here is small, the cult is known to have a wide reach. Their priests and shrines can be found in many pirate bases. Some of them even set up shop aboard large pirate ships!" This sounded more and more suspicious to Ves. Even Calabast began to realize that there might be more to the Hallowed Abyss Temple. "Where do they come from? Where is the Hallowed Abyss Temple based?" "It's said that their physical temple is actually located deep in the core regions. This is in line with their religious beliefs The so-called Abyssal Servants do not fear the Nyxian Gap and all of its unknown phenomena. Instead, the cultists worship it. They believe the Nyxian Gap is not a cancerous tumor, but instead a sacred blessing bestowed by their mysterious 'Dark Gods'." That didn't sound good! The more he heard about this cult, the more Ves grew certain about this guess! Ves not only suspected that the Hallowed Abyss Temple may be responsible for calling down the anomaly, but also guessed that it might be another splinter organization of the Five Scrolls Compact! If the Hallowed Abyss Temple was truly based in the depths of the core regions, then it shouldn't be too far away from the mysterious regional headquarters of the Compact. From his prior experiences, Ves already knew that the powerful Compact possessed a penchant of starting up numerous seemingly-unconnected daughter organizations. This was one of the methods they used to coverly expand their influence and reach without triggering the Big Two's vigilance. Back in the Faris Star Region, Ves once experienced the weirdness surrounding the Church of Haatumak. Now that he thought about it, the Hallowed Abyss Temple bore some resemblance to the Church of Haatumak! It was as if some leader in the Compact reused the same model but adapted it to a different environment! "Goddamn cultists!" Ves cursed. Even though he made some very important realizations, that didn't mean he found a solution to the calamity that had descended on his mech troops. Not everyone possessed his understanding of the spiritual nature of this anomaly. The more the Larkinsons figured out, the more helpless they felt. Despair began to spread throughout the fleet as they began to fear the worst! Within the anomalous region, each person trapped inside began to feel an unnerving pressure on their minds. Strangely enough, those within the main base experienced something different than those trapped outside in space. Those who resided on the moon-sized asteroid were spared from any danger. Mostly. What discomfited the pirates, guests and residents inside the stronghold was the sudden descent of darkness and shadows. No matter how much light fixtures illuminated the interior of Ulimo Citadel, everyone's vision seemed to have dropped to just a stone's throw away! What was even scarier was that the darkness intensified over time! Several worrying fluctuations occurred deeper within, causing frightened Nyxian pirates to imagine all sorts of inexplicable horrors lurking within! No one knew what was going on. Ketis and her squad of Mirror Raiders had huddled together inside a random shop. Each of them warmed up their rifles and looked ready to shoot whatever threat that emerged. Everyone kept their combat armor sealed and breathed air from their internal oxygen tanks. No one wanted to take the risk of breathing any toxins brought by this strange phenomena. Ketis gripped her cutlass with one hand and her compact laser pistol with the other hand. She felt increasingly discomfited by what had descended upon Ulimo Citadel. "Have we reached the others?" She asked. "No, ma'am. Our long-ranged communications aren't working anymore. No signal is able to make it past twenty meters." One of her squadmates replied. This meant that the darkness surrounding them was cutting them off from the rest of their compatriots! This meant that every group of Mirror Raiders had to fend for themselves! "What do we do?!" A Flagrant Vandal asked. "This phenomenon is definitely related to the attack on our base. The pirates must have suffered a lot of blows before being desperate." "Are they trying to kill us all?! This is clearly an anomaly!" "It's not the same." Ketis remarked. "We aren't locked in time, and I don't see any other unusual effects. Perhaps the pirates have found some way to shield their base from the brunt of the anomaly!" The disguised Larkinsons made some guesses, but that didn't help them from this predicament. They were completely blind and deaf of everything that happened beyond twenty meters. "What is going on outside?" Ketis frowned. Her worry kept growing as her discomfort grew with each passing second. Though the situation within the pirate stronghold only appeared unsettling, the same could not be said for the Larkinson mechs trapped outside! Each and every mech in space had become engulfed by impenetrable darkness. No matter how close the mechs stuck together, they had become completely isolated from their fellow comrades after the descent of the dark sphere! No matter in which direction they flew, they failed to stumble upon any friendly mechs. What was worse was this was just the start!