Chapter 331: Eclipse of the Dark Night

Naimi Xisi wandered in the library for an unknown length of time—perhaps a day, perhaps a week, maybe even a year; time had already lost its meaning here.

But he did not give up, steadfastly walking among the infinitely distant shelves, as if he were certain to find a way out.

Perhaps he had truly been here too long; famished yet tireless, he kept moving forward mechanically, and after passing a bookshelf he suddenly froze when he saw that the sides ahead no longer bore the nauseating bronze shelves.

"Hm?"

Naimi Xisi was first bewildered, then snapped to clarity, delightedly gazing at the scene that had finally changed before his eyes.

No longer a monotonous row of shelves, a spacious circular area unfolded before him; six aisles of shelves connected here, and a sign reading "Reading Room" rested on a table at the very center, upon which sat an old computer.

In the center of the reading area, an antiquated spherical monitor glowed with an emerald hue. The off‑white 486 machine looked as if it had slipped out of a 1990s office; the "Little Overlord" sticker on the case side peeled and re‑formed under the wear of time, and a thick layer of dust coated the keyboard tray.

Naimi Xisi approached the front of the computer with some puzzlement, and saw the snow‑speckled CRT screen frozen on the Windows 98 boot screen, the progress bar stuck at 99%.

Surprisingly, the dust‑covered mechanical keyboard was moving on its own, the clack of the backspace and the thud of the Enter key weaving a kind of code. When Naimi Xisi leaned in, he discovered a half‑sheet of the 1999 "Computer Report" tucked beneath the faded keys.

Next to the computer sat an ancient printer; as the keyboard clacked, yellowed triplicate forms twitched out of the dot‑matrix machine, each sheet bearing a different era's "xx City Meteorological Bureau Letterhead." When the thirteenth sheet began printing, the ribbon suddenly oozed blue blood, and the produced "El Niño Phenomenon Termination Report" had every character seep into the paper fibers and re‑form into a Maya calendar apocalypse prophecy.

The floating sheets, as they rose toward the top of the monitor, were suddenly sucked into a pixel vortex deep within the screen. Naimi Xisi seized the "El Niño Phenomenon Termination Report" and examined it in his hands.

It claimed to be a weather report, yet the text read like an extremely tangled nonsense.

"When the third star of Orion's Belt begins to contract, the menstrual blood imprisoned in the cesium atomic clock will swell like a tide."

"Pay attention to the tides at the birth of the new moon, pitiful mortals. Once the night breaks free from the day's shackles, that is when she lifts her skirt."

"The Dark Night Goddess's sacrum is pounding the ecliptic; all clocks will birth a black amniotic membrane, and all stagnant souls will return to the primordial void."

"Poor souls, the final ritual is about to commence."

"The gate is a birth canal, the gate is a stillborn, the gate is devouring its own umbilical cord."

Naimi Xisi's pupils contracted, and his hand holding the paper trembled. He already knew what the contents meant.

These seemingly mad ramblings are indeed incomprehensible to mortals, but Juan Ce Long's vast memory inheritance happens to contain detailed records of them.

Dark Night Eclipse.

Across the immense Multiverse, Saar's reputation can be said to strike terror into the hearts of the vast majority of sentient beings.

Not merely because of Saar's evil schemes, but also because of her relentless devotion to the terrifying concept of World-Ending.

According to the doctrine of the Dark Night Church, Saar was born as a goddess from the primordial darkness. The era of her first appearance predates the distant emergence of the Wasteland Deity.

No one now knows which world Saar was originally born in; by the time mortals became aware of her, she already wielded an absolute, formidable power within Ying Ying Ming Jie. This is why most scholars of Frelen firmly believe Saar is not a native deity—even though her own church constantly claims otherwise.

In Frelen, Saar plays the role of a subterranean rat in the shadows, yet in other Crystal Barrier realms she is a terror‑inducing presence.

Saar loves darkness, and loves even more to pull all things into absolute darkness.

Those Crystal Barrier realms lacking the protection of mighty deities are often singled out by Saar.

Her followers will spread murder and war in that world, stir up turmoil, and after amassing a colossal amount of sacrifices, chant for thirty‑three years to perform a planet‑scale Divine Spell ceremony called Dark Night Eclipse.

The ritual has a single purpose: to summon the primordial darkness—Saar's power—to permanently veil all sources of light (including moonlight, starlight, and magical radiance), and to return time to its original stasis, thereby plunging the world into frozen darkness, destroying the existing order and establishing Saar's absolute rule.

The ritual is believed to trigger a planet‑scale "Shadow Curse," merging the material plane with Saar's realm of darkness. Apart from shadow creatures, almost no being can survive in this horrific environment.

Because of this dreadful effect, the Dark Night Eclipse's infamy is renowned throughout the Multiverse, and Saar's followers have become universally reviled.

After all, anyone who constantly seeks to destroy worlds is unacceptable to anyone. According to known records, Saar's followers have successfully conducted at least sixty‑four Dark Night Eclipse ceremonies.

That means sixty‑four worlds have been annihilated under Saar's power.

!

"It's no surprise this place is also on Saar's radar; after all, to seal Vikna, Saar had long ago visited this world."

Naimi Xisi's expression wavered; he had already regarded this spot as his backup stronghold, and now learns it is about to be destroyed?

Looking at the information on that paper, it seems the ritual will be completed in 2024.

"No, I must catch the one preparing the ritual; if the ceremony is set for 2024, the chanting stage hasn't begun yet, so there's still a chance."

Naimi Xisi did a quick mental calculation and breathed a sigh of relief. The preparation phase of the Dark Night Eclipse requires thirty‑three years, so by the timeline it shouldn't have started yet.

That counts as an advantage, because once the ritual begins, a Naimi Xisi who interrupts it would immediately fall into the Dark Night Goddess Saar's sight—a highly perilous act.

Resolute, Naimi Xisi fixed his gaze on the computer: "But... this computer can actually foresee the future?"

Though the room is empty, it keeps typing, writing out all sorts of events yet to occur.

Could it be the medium for sealing Viktor?

Naimi Xisi tried to reach toward the computer screen; the moment his fingers touched the pixel pattern, he felt an immense suction.

In the next instant, he was drawn into the computer, leaving only the empty reading room and the ceaseless clatter of the mechanical keyboard.

(End of Chapter)