Chapter 471: To Conquer Or To Escape
"The audio messages first," Kael said.
N’bayé nodded, then navigated to a folder displayed on the terminal’s screen. She clicked on it and the folder opened to show a list of audio files.
N’bayé had spent some time copying the contents of each of the small black boxes on the shelves to the terminal’s virtual space.
All three hundred and thirty-three of them.
Since all of them had been used to serve as a secret password, she had hoped to find some other clue after copying the contents into the terminal.
Unfortunately, there was no clue. The main purpose of the black hard drives was to open the terminal. The audio messages were merely decoys in the grand schemes.
N’bayé began to play each audio message for Kael and Katari. She pressed play and the first audio message was played for all to hear.
The terminal had retranslated everyone to match the language of the nearest civilization. N’bayé did not yet understand how the computer was able to do that but she acknowledged its ability.
The audio message played, the owner of the voice speaking in one of the human languages of Planet Kareem. Kael already knew about this language and could fluently understand it.
He had no problem listening to this first audio message.
At first, Kael’s expression was calm. The owner of the voice was merely lamenting about some kind of doom, Kael cared but it wasn’t enough to surprise him.
How else would such an advanced civilization be brought down if not for an unavoidable calamity?
N’bayé read Kael’s expression and saw that he was not yet intrigued. She calmly waited for the message to end before playing the next one.
One by one, N’bayé played each message and it wasn’t until the twentieth play that Kael’s brows finally furrowed slightly.
Kael’s frown was not invalid. The last audio message N’bayé had played had affected him in some kind of way that he couldn’t understand.
The owner of that message, the owner of that voice. He had poured so much emotion into his lamentations that it literally leaked through the screen.
The only person unaffected was Katari who stared blankly and only observed all that was happening unemotionally.
"Keep playing," Kael ordered as he relaxed his frown. N’bayé complied.
The audio messages continued to play.
By the hundredth play, Kael’s brows were fully furrowed and a solemn look clouded his eyes.
Kael was overcome with a strong feeling of defeat and weakness. As if something bad was going to happen and no matter how strong he became, he would never be able to fight against it.
It was an ugly feeling that instantly put Kael in a bad mood.
N’bayé continued playing the audio messages. One after the other, Kael’s ears were filled with the agonizing cries of the last survivors of this lost and ancient civilization.
Some audio messages were a bit long and some were very short. Some explained some minor things in detail and some were just filled with crazy complaints.
All of them were valuable and provided Kael with some insights into what was happening.
However, it wasn’t until that particular message was played that Kael’s soul shook.
[Loading...
"So because we tried to leave the universe, the universe treated us like pests that should be eradicated.
We already made sure to keep our numbers at one trillion, we respected the integrity of the fabric of space.
We refrained from traveling back in time.
We avoided breaking all the rules.
But for some reason, the universe draws a line at multiversal travel.
YOU CAN’T HOLD US BACK HIGHEST WILL! YOU CAN’T!
YOU MUSTN’T, IT’S NOT FAIR!
PLEASE! please..."
...]
*Silence*
The quietness of the room was so unnatural.
Kael’s golden eyes flashed dangerously as he was returned to that moment where he met that entity.
Was the Highest Will actually responsible for what happened to these creatures and their civilization?
What mattered was that this message was a reminder to Kael.
"Keep playing," Kael said through gritted teeth. His eyes darted around as if he were watching for some hidden entity in the room.
Kael’s body language had taken a significant turn, going from somewhat relaxed to blatantly paranoid.
N’bayé continued playing the audio messages and Kael listened attentively to all of them.
Finally, the last of the audio messages was played for Kael and Katari. This message wasn’t like the others.
Where others were mostly lamentations or descriptions of their sufferings, the last message was a stern warning.
It warned of the danger that came with being too curious.
The audio messages ended.
Kael had been able to piece together some information from all that he heard.
This ancient civilization seems to have been prosperous and enjoyed a lot of privileges from the universe. From the looks of it, they seemed to have been blessed with intelligence and advanced technology.
Kael could almost guess their affiliated laws, seeing that they were monkeys.
However, this civilization apparently broke some kind of rule that involved trying to leave the universe or achieve multiversal travel.
This just went to show how powerful this civilization had once been. Currently, Kael did not know of any entity that could proudly say they had seen all the edges of the universe.
The known universe was just too big and it would take a lot of effort to have traveled all over it.
Yet, this ancient civilization had been so bored with this current universe, apparently no longer finding the things within interesting, and decided to travel out.
They were then punished for this.
No one was allowed to leave the universe.
Kael didn’t want to think too much about this since it involved the Highest Will. Kael had mixed feelings concerning the matter.
Besides, it had been so long ago and Kael couldn’t see himself trying to leave the universe in the coming future.
He was trying to conquer the universe, not escape from it. He had no reason to leave until every corner of space and time belonged to the lion race and him.
As for what lay beyond the universe, Kael could not afford to think about it or care at this moment.
What mattered now was the spoils he could extract from this ancient civilization and what could be of benefit to him.
"Have you memorized the contents of all the messages?" Kael asked N’bayé.
N’bayé nodded, "Yes."
Kael turned to look at Katari behind him, "And you?" He asked.
Katari nodded.
Kael actually didn’t need to ask. For Katari, it was usually hard for her to forget something even if she wanted to. Each of them had superior memory retention and it would take an extremely long time or external spirit powers for them to just forget what they heard.
"Okay, N’bayé, delete all the audio messages next month if you can’t find any other use for them," Kael said.
"Okay," N’bayé agreed and didn’t ask for Kael’s reason.
Kael just didn’t want anything that could serve as a vulnerability right now. It was better to stay clear of anything that would attract the attention of beings he could not fight against.
"Show me the others," Kael demanded and N’bayé started navigating to the terminal’s virtual space.
In her spare time, N’bayé had sorted out each of the folders and separated them into study groups.
She had been
Kael was able to see all of them. The experiment logs, the videos, the genetic research.
The blueprints for different planet-sized Megastructures were many, numbering in the hundreds.
Scientific studies and principles, physics, biology, chemistry, psychology, and different schools of thought.
Different languages to learn from and there was also a digital encyclopedia containing information on countless races and the laws they were affiliated with.
And the folder that caught Kael’s attention the most was the same folder N’bayé had been studying recently.
"Project Ape," Kael muttered.
Of course, he knew what an ape was. It was weird that many creatures existed on Eridoria, yet there was no single ape.
The closest thing to an ape there had been other creatures in their humanoid forms.
And now, Kael was seeing it once again. The word ’Ape’ was displayed just as it had been pronounced back on Earth.
There was no difference, this increased Kael’s suspicion.
"Have you started studying that one?" Kael asked.
"Yes, this one is related to the true origins of humanity," N’bayé said.
Kael’s eyebrows were raised in confusion, "Really?" He asked as he stepped toward the terminal.
This was something he wanted to check himself.
Little golden electricity arcs circled Kael’s fingers, runes appeared on his eyes and his aura became calmer.
N’bayé stepped aside for him. She derived some sort of pleasure in seeing Kael discovering new things with her. The look on Kael’s face whenever he found something new was something she looked forward to.
Kael took a deep breath, his fingers hovering above the glowing keyboard. Whether he would like the answer to the question or not didn’t matter now.
He would learn regardless, knowledge was a weapon he would never be reckless with.