Hidden in plain sight under the complex material world, there were many things that far exceeded human comprehension. What the naked eye could see was only the insignificant camouflage of the other world. In the vision of the soul, the other world was much more complicated than what was manifested.
Since Tannagost was ravaged by a supernatural catastrophe, the planet had been completely transformed. Its material aspect may have been daunting, but the hidden part of it was even more horrifying. Innumerable restless, ancient souls roamed the planet. The tide of energy and information produced by the the First Born had been surging on the planet for 10,000 years, leaving behind countless visible as well as invisible supernatural footprints. The memories of the Tannaeans were divorced from their bodies. They floated along the tide of the planet, distorting and entangling themselves with other information as they became indescribable monsters. However, at certain nodes, the ancient souls, which were still capable of thinking could still be contacted, as long as one was gifted with a certain talent.
When Hao Ren reached his hand into the distorted air, for a moment, he felt as if his consciousness was being pulled out. At the same time, a massive spiritual force was pouring into his mind and interrupting his perception of the outside world. He felt like he was standing in a vast void, surrounded by chaotic gray haze, and a... No, countless shadows were standing in the depths of the haze, watching him.
Hao Ren awakened from the shock and instinctively focused on escaping from the experience. He had mastered the mental power to resist spiritual invasion. Just as he was about to make a move, a voice suddenly called out amid the phantoms, "Please don't be nervous, strangers. We are not malicious."
"Who are you?" Hao Ren asked while he looked down at his body. As expected, only his conscious was floating in the chaotic dimension. He could still feel his body in the real world, it was just temporarily disconnected. This reminded him of the experience he had with the gigantic brain creature.
"We are the aborigines of this planet," the phantoms in the haze spoke. Hao Ren did not know whether the voice was of a male or a female. He could not really perceive the distance from which it was coming from as well. He even had no idea if it was a shadow or an infinite number of overlapping shadows speaking. He could only feel a series of echoes. "We are the Tannaeans."
Hao Ren was stunned for a moment before he calmly replied, "I expected as much. I thought only mad, vengeful spirits existed on this planet."
"Indeed, only mad souls exist here," the phantom said steadily. "All the spirits have lost themselves. Strictly speaking, the group of 'us' in front of you are only a set of data. We can no longer call ourselves life forms... We are the memory of all Tannaeans."
"I know about your change of form." Hao Ren did not pursue the distinction between "memory" and "soul". He felt his connection with the chaotic field weakening. Perhaps, Tannaean psychic ability had difficulty connecting with the minds of humans on Earth. "What went wrong? Why couldn't you escape despite your change in life form? How did you become senseless monsters?"
"We thought that by getting rid of the body, we would be able to escape the ecological disaster. Little did we know that the slaughtering in the material world was only the mildest form of the entire disaster. After leaving the material world, we faced even more terrible distortions and chaos," said the floating phantom. Hao Ren felt another spiritual force approaching. "Stranger, please see for yourself."
This force was not invasive. It was only showing a memory. After knowing it was safe, Hao Ren began to calm down and look at the ancient memory from 10,000 years ago.
He discovered that he was standing on a magnificent city wall, surrounded by a magnificent city built with gold. The wind was whistling in his ears. Numerous tall, semi-transparent figures were running around him and shouting, "The third protective wall has been shattered! The robot couldn't stop the tentacles!"
"Medics, we need medics here. The wounded from the protective wall need medical attention..."
"Earthquake, there's an earthquake again!"
"The tentacles have penetrated the foundation and the protective walls are cracking..."
Hao Ren realized that this was a scene from those 10,000 years ago. He was looking at it from the perspective of a soldier, who was standing on the wall.
He discovered "his" perspective slowly moved past the city walls and he looked out the city quiveringly. The trembling revealed an incomprehensible fear in him.
Beyond the city, the earth was cracking and huge mountains were rolling around like wild creatures. It was a real living thing—that mountain range was actually part of the First Born's tentacles!
The whole world seemed to have been covered by the tentacles as well as giant trees, and the massive First Born was all consuming. In between the tentacles, a dark-red fluid flowed slowly. The substance looked like bone marrow and it decomposed any remaining life residue outside the shelter. The sanctuary was the last surviving starlight in the hellish world: it was teetering, and insignificant as the First Born angrily whipped Alamanda's last two layers of defense. The entire city's geological structure was shaking. A large number of tentacles had crossed the wall and spread to the city's energy shields, almost burying the last light in the city.
It was an absolutely terrifying, and hellish vision.
Hao Ren felt his perspective shaking again. Then, the scene of the "transcendence" ceremony appeared before him.
The surviving Tannaeans gathered in the square near the Transcendence Tower and were carried up into the sky by an inexplicable power. The gold tower released a nebullike electric awn and the Tannaeans' inherent spiritual power was transcended in resonance. Their spirits were extracted and materialized, then their bodies gradually decomposed into heavenly light spots. At the last moment of of their end days, the Tannaeans finally realized that the spreading tentacles were tracking life signs. They had to completely abandon their own corpses, lest the massacre of the city by the tentacles continued.
As the last group of people transcended into spiritual bodies, the dome of Alamanda emmitted a splendid glow, which was a lethal radioactive ray. It was the final "life cleansing order" set by the Tannaeans. All the regular organisms in the city would rapidly die under the radiation, including the most stubborn single-celled organisms.
Only by wiping out all sense of life would the First Born's killing stop.
From that moment onwards, there was only one creature left on Tannagost—the overgrown First Born, which had become stronger than ever.
Hao Ren's consciousness continued to move forward with the foreign memory. He finally experienced the perspective of the Tannaeans as spiritual creatures. He "noticed" that he was gradually rising up into the air, surrounded by countless transluscent spirits. The owner of the memory was looking at the material world and the spiritual world from a new perspective. After adapting to his new "body", he looked into the horizon and saw the surging tentacles as well as the weird, massive creature within.
A strong sense of panic rose from the memory.
An enormous shadow of unprecedented horror hovered above the tentacles as a large amount of crazy mental energy quickly spread out from the gaps between the tentacles and grew into a dark tide that enveloped the entire planet. The First Born's tentacles waved wildly in the dark mud of chaos, as if it was ridiculing the Tannaeans, who thought that they could escape by transforming their life forms.
No one had ever seen such a thing around the First Born until the Tannaeans turned into spiritual beings. They finally realized that their enemy was far more terrible than expected.
In the spirit's vision, the First Born was far more formidable than its physical form suggested.
"It has an incomparable soul power, even stronger than its tentacles and Red Tide. Unfortunately, we didn't realize it until we became spiritual entities. This transformation is a one-off, irreversible, and time-critical. We couldn't even let some people transform first to confirm how it worked. We have suffered a catastrophic disaster." Hao Ren's consciousness exited the horrific memory. He heard the "collective souls" of the Tannaeans speaking to him. "It shattered the 'self' of every Tannaean. It must have been a terrible electromagnetic storm, by which all souls were fused together. Millions of thoughts, memories, and personalities were forcibly fused, becoming..."
"Vengeful spirits." Hao Ren finally understood. "The essence of it is, it's a kind of mix-up."
"Everything is over now, and only we are left," said the phantom flatly. "We are a memory of falsehood, a copy of the Tannagost Civilization. Perhaps the power of destruction didn't even think of us as a life form: we are non-material and non-energy creatures, so we've survived till this day."
Hao Ren sighed. "What can I do for you?"