Maximus, his family, and all the Absolutes and powerhouses not in seclusion gathered at the entrance of the Dark Void Domain.
Shrouded in a solemn atmosphere, they turned toward Maximus, as if waiting for his cue.
Although they had heard he would simulate the eruption of the Dark Disaster, none of them knew how he planned to do it.
"Father, everything is ready. You can start," Liam said, inspecting all the powerhouses present.
"What about the Void Outposts and the Virtual Realm? Are they ready?"
"Everything is as you ordered. Each Void Outpost was given a million units of Plane Origin for emergencies. The Virtual Realm also has 100 million Plane Origin in reserve," Lux reported.
Not knowing how much danger he might cause, Maximus could only prepare for the worst.
Hearing that everything was ready, he began urging his Plane-level ability to deduce the optimization path for the micro-surveillance array.
Closing his eyes, a vague direction immediately presented itself in his mind.
"Nero… the Heavenly System…"
"Sure enough, the solution lies in the Heavenly System."
The function of the Heavenly System was to gather all knowledge within a plane and answer any question its host posed.
Using information collected across the plane and a general correction mechanism supported by other Heavenly Systems, it could provide answers with perfect accuracy.
Unfortunately, that general correction mechanism wasn't enough.
The Heavenly System still relied primarily on data from the Aeon Plane as its basis for answers.
Over the sixty thousand years they had tried optimizing the micro-surveillance bots, Nero had relentlessly posed questions to the Heavenly System.
Rewording, shifting perspectives, eliminating all possibilities, trying random words—Nero used every phrase he could think of to find the right question.
But with data limited to the Aeon Plane, the answers his son received were too vague to form anything intelligible.
Trying to piece together and deduce meaning from those scattered responses gave Maximus nothing but headaches.
With too little information, he can only push the True Path forward, hoping to uncover more details.
"Three levels of encryption… Break the first encryption…"
After turning the True Path up a notch, Maximus finally uncovered something useful.
The three levels of encryption within the Heavenly System: the All-Knowing, the Omniscient, and the Omnipotent.
Breaking through the first encryption, the system would become All-Knowing, able to answer any question using data from every plane it had ever accessed.
The second level, the Omniscient, would grant unrestricted access to all knowledge, allowing the Heavenly System to perform autonomous deductions, even create a clone and transfer it to others.
Finally, the third encryption, Omnipotence, would allow rewriting the fundamental code of the Heavenly System itself, effectively granting ownership of the system that spanned the entire Planar Chaos Region.
Unfortunately, breaking the first encryption required the host to be at least an Overlord. The second required one to be an Archon.
And the third? It demanded something beyond even the Archons, meaning no one had ever truly controlled the entirety of the Heavenly System.
Maximus even guessed that the origin of the Heavenly System spanned multiple Chaos Regions.
"Huh~ This is not enough…"
According to the True Path, breaking the first encryption should have been enough to help them optimize the micro-surveillance bots and merge Lazo's biological factor.
Unfortunately, after some deduction, with both his and Nero's current strength, it would take them at least a million years to break through the first encryption.
Not having the luxury to wait that long, he pushed the True Path further, seeking a way to break the first encryption of the Heavenly System faster.
Soon, with a flood of information detailing the method to do so poured into his mind, Maximus finally opened his eyes.
"How is it, Maximus? Did you succeed?" Iris asked curiously.
The other also turned to him, eagerly waiting for his answer.
"Hmm, I know what to do next," Maximus said, smiling after such an abundant harvest.
"What about the danger? Nothing seems to be happening." Max asked in disappointment, not seeing the chaos promised by his father.
Looking at the Dark Void Domain, everything appeared as usual.
Before Maximus could even finish his words, the void began to rumble as dense dark energy started to coagulate.
"Prepare for battle."
With his voice echoing through the void, the solemn atmosphere tightened, like a drawn bow, ready to release.
Soon, as the rumbling intensified, the empty void suddenly turned crimson-red, as if shrouded in blood.
"No! How could this be possible?! A Chaotic Crimson Blood Phenomenon?" Mira exclaimed in shock, staring at the suddenly gloomy void.
"What kind of phenomenon is that? Is it dangerous?"
"No. On the contrary, this phenomenon is considered a blessing to a plane. It attracts treasures from the Chaotic Void beyond the plane level."
"Then what are you worried about?"
"That's the problem. While it draws in treasures, it also attracts every foreign object drifting in the void."
"It can bypass plane barriers, defenses, and arrays. Which means… It's a free-for-all for the Dark Beasts outside."
"It's over…" Hearing Mira's explanation, they can only imagine the Aeon Plane turning into a magnet, attracting every dark beast outside.
Thinking of Dark Beasts pouring in from all directions, how could they protect the Aeon Plane now that they were all gathered in the Dark Void Domain?
"Don't worry. This is a controlled phenomenon; it should only affect the Dark Void Domain," Maximus reassured.
Before he used his Plane-level ability, the Path of Knowledge was in an active state, monitoring any potential dangers across the Aeon Plane.
Witnessing the Chaotic Crimson Blood Phenomenon, he confirmed it was confined to the Dark Void Domain.
"Father is right. I contacted all standby stations across the Aeon Plane. So far, this phenomenon is only occurring in the Dark Void Domain," Lux added, easing their concerns.
Since it was limited in scope, they still had control over the situation.
With nearly all the powerhouses of the Aeon Plane gathered together, they didn't believe they'd be easily overwhelmed.
"Don't celebrate too early. With all the Dark Beasts gathering in one place… this won't be simple."