Building Interstellar Empire With Universal Synthesis

Chapter 235: Chapter 235: The Hell

The central command room of Sanctum Prime was a hive of frantic activity. Holographic blueprints spun in the air, glowing with bright blue and urgent crimson light.

Thousands of Zenith Vanguard engineers rushed between server banks, shouting complex mathematical formulas and spatial coordinates.

​In the center of the chaos stood Zestia. She wore her imperial combat uniform, her eyes darting across a massive projection of a weapon currently under construction in the planetary orbit.

​The heavy metallic doors of the command room hissed open.

​Complete silence instantly fell over the room. The engineers stopped shouting. The data analysts froze at their stations.

Every single person in the room dropped to one knee, bowing their heads in absolute reverence.

​Neo walked through the doors. His footsteps echoed off the polished obsidian floor. The faint, terrifying aura of golden hellfire and silver light still clung to his clothes, distorting the air around him like a mirage.

​"Rise," Neo commanded softly.

​The engineers stood up, their eyes filled with a mixture of absolute terror and fanatic devotion. They had all seen the live feed. They had watched their Emperor shatter the conceptual pillar of the universe and plunge the God Realm into eternal blindness.

To them, he was no longer just an Emperor. He was a force of cosmic nature.

​Zestia walked forward and bowed her head. "My husband. You have returned victorious. The entire Vanguard fleet is holding position. We are awaiting your next command."

​"What is the status of the spatial drill?" Neo asked, walking past her to examine the massive hologram floating in the center of the room.

​Chief Engineer Vektor stepped out from behind the console. He was an elderly man with cybernetic eyes and a trembling voice.

"Your majesty, the design is complete. We have repurposed the core engines of three dreadnoughts to power the device. We call it the Void Piercer. It uses gravitational singularities to tear a temporary hole through dimensional barriers. But we have a massive problem."

​"Explain," Neo said, his expression completely blank.

​Vektor swallowed hard. His cybernetic hands rapidly typed on a holographic keyboard, bringing up a complex cosmic map.

"Your majesty, a spatial drill requires a destination coordinate to lock onto. You ordered us to drill into the realm underneath the gods. We tried to scan the dimensional frequencies below the mortal plane, but our sensors are returning impossible data."

​The hologram shifted to show a massive, swirling black mass located underneath the known universe.

​"The density of this realm is infinite," Vektor explained nervously. "There is no light, no breathable atmosphere, and the cosmic laws of physics are entirely inverted. Emperor, this is not a planet. This is a metaphysical graveyard. If we open a portal to this place, the sheer crushing gravity could rip Sanctum Prime apart."

​Neo stared at the black mass on the screen. He could hear the faint, echoing voices of Eragon and Drogon whispering in his mind, providing him with the ancient knowledge of the Twin Ancestors.

​"You are scanning the Deepest Hell. Your sensors are failing because mortal machines are not designed to comprehend the architecture of the Prime Deities."

​Zestia looked at Neo with deep concern. "The Deepest Hell? I thought hell was just a myth mortal religions invented to scare sinners into obedience."

​Neo let out a cold, humorless laugh. "Mortal myths are entirely wrong, Zestia. The gods do not care about mortal sins. They do not care if a human steals or murders. They only care about their own survival. Hell is not a prison for bad people. Hell is a cosmic landfill where the Prime Deities hide their own colossal mistakes."

​Neo reached out and touched the holographic projection. He channeled a tiny fraction of his silver light into the console. The computer systems beeped wildly as the divine energy bypassed the mortal sensors and forcibly rendered a true map of the abyssal realm.

​The black mass on the screen expanded, splitting into three distinct, terrifying layers.

​"Listen closely," Neo commanded, addressing the entire room. "Hell is divided into three stratums. The gods designed it to be completely impenetrable from the outside, and entirely inescapable from the inside. We are going to drill through all of them."

​Neo pointed to the top layer of the hologram. It looked like an endless, gray wasteland floating in a sea of nothingness.

​"The First Stratum is called the Ashen Wastes," Neo explained. "When the gods first built their eternal palaces, they needed raw materials. They harvested entire planets, completely draining them of mana, life, and conceptual weight. They threw the dead husks down into the abyss. The Ashen Wastes is a graveyard made from the crushed remains of ten million dead worlds. The gravity there is so heavy it will crush a standard Vanguard cruiser into a sphere the size of a marble in less than a second."

​Vektor wiped sweat from his forehead. "How are we supposed to survive that?"

​"I will extend my divine aura over the flagship," Neo replied smoothly. "The hellfire will burn away the crushing pressure before it touches the hull."

​Neo moved his finger down to the second layer of the projection. This layer was violently swirling with toxic, corrosive colors.

​"The Second Stratum is the Sea of Screaming Mercury. This is where the gods locked away the primordial abominations. Before the universe settled into its current shape, there were creatures made of pure chaos. Beasts that eat time, parasites that lay eggs inside conceptual thoughts, and leviathans that breathe anti matter. The gods could not kill them, so they drowned them in an infinite ocean of highly corrosive liquid metal. If you fall into that ocean, your physical body will melt, and your soul will be trapped in the mercury for eternity."

​Zestia shuddered. "And the third layer?"

​Neo pointed to the absolute bottom of the projection. It was a perfectly spherical vault, glowing with a sickly golden light.

​"The Third Stratum is the Tartarus Vault. It is a mechanical solar system built specifically to torture my mentors. This is where the Tartarus Engine rests. It is guarded by the oldest and most loyal servants of the Pantheon. They are beings forged entirely from absolute law. They do not feel pain. They do not feel fear. They only know how to execute intruders."

​The command room was dead silent. The engineers stared at the map in pure horror. They were preparing to invade a realm designed to break the minds of gods.

​"Your majesty, even with your divine protection, a full fleet will not survive the descent. The logistical nightmare of moving thousands of ships through the Ashen Wastes and the Mercury Sea is impossible. The abominations will swarm us the moment we breach the second layer."

​"I know," Neo agreed instantly. "That is why we are not taking the fleet."

​Zestia stepped forward, her crimson eyes widening. "You intend to go alone?"

​"No," Neo replied, turning to look at his wife. "I am taking the flagship, the Ghost, and my ten strongest generals. The rest of the Zenith Vanguard will remain here to fortify the mortal universe. The gods are trapped with a starving beast right now, but we cannot assume they will all die. If even one Prime Deity manages to escape the Pantheon Hall, I need the Vanguard ready to defend my empire."

​Zestia placed her hand over her heart and bowed deeply. "I will remain and command the defense forces, my husband. I will not let a single planet fall while you are gone."

​"See that you do," Neo said, offering her a rare, faint smile.

​Neo turned back to the chief engineer. "Vektor. Attach the Void Piercer directly to the front hull of my personal dreadnought. Reroute all auxiliary power to the drilling lasers. I want to launch in exactly one hour."

​"It will be done, Emperor!" Vektor shouted, already scrambling back to his console to begin the frantic modifications.

​One hour later, the massive Zenith dreadnought hovered alone in the dark vacuum of space. The rest of the fleet had pulled back, giving the massive warship a wide berth.

​Neo stood on the command bridge, looking out through the reinforced glass observation deck. Behind him stood his ten elite generals. They were all clad in heavy, mana infused power armor. They were the absolute apex of mortal strength, warriors who had conquered galaxies in Neo’s name. Yet, as they stared out into the empty void, they could all feel a deep, primal dread settling into their bones.

​"Generals," Neo addressed without turning around. "You are about to step into a realm where reality itself wants you dead. Do not trust your eyes. Do not trust your ears. The only truth in the abyss is the blade in your hand."

​The ten generals slammed their fists against their chests in unison.

​"For the Emperor!" they roared together.

​Neo raised his left hand. The dark, starry void of space outside the window began to warp and bend. He channeled the chaotic power of the Light Dragon and the dark entropy of the Dark Dragon, fusing the two opposing forces together in the palm of his hand.

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