Chapter 338 |
The new human camp established by Quaritch was surrounded on all sides by the endless corpses of animals from the planet Pandora.
But in the distance, a large number of animals continued to gather toward the camp.
These animals had been attacking the camp as if they didn't care about their lives for a whole day now.
If it weren’t for the fact that the mechanical army Josh traded to Quaritch was large enough and powerful enough—and that battleships and aircraft had been used to carpet-bomb with weapons of mass destruction—they might really have been unable to stop these completely frenzied creatures.
At a temporary altar deep inside the camp, a yak-man stood, his hands glowing with elemental energy, resonating with a crystal on the altar.
He was the shaman yak-man sent by Josh to assist Quaritch, named Koruno Shininghoof.
After a long time, the elemental energy in Koruno’s hands subsided, and he let out a heavy sigh.
“How is it, my brother?” asked another yak-man with a staff nearby. He was the druid yak-man, named Karensa Shininghoof—Koruno’s blood brother.
“Our conclusion is the same. The spirit of nature in this world is furious—furious because of our presence—and it is even refusing to communicate with us,” Koruno Shininghoof said in a deep, gravelly voice.
As a druid, he instinctively rejected such destruction of nature.
Fortunately, he was not an extreme environmentalist and could distinguish between friend and foe.
“Let’s report it like this,” Koruno Shininghoof said, patting his brother on the shoulder, then turned to walk down the altar.
“Master Koruno, what’s the result?” Quaritch immediately stepped forward and asked when he saw Koruno descend from the altar.
“The Chief’s guess was correct. The nature spirit of this planet already possesses its own consciousness. The reason for the current situation is that it is extremely repulsing us outsiders, who carry the aura of nature spirits from other universes. The solution to our predicament is simple: as long as we, along with the proto-dragons, leave this world, the problem will be resolved,” Koruno Shininghoof said, revealing his conclusion.
“Nature spirit? What is that?” Quaritch asked, frowning.
“In scientific terms, it’s the self-awareness possessed by this planet—or rather, its ecosystem,” Koruno Shininghoof explained after some thought.
Although a shaman, the Shininghoof brothers had been traded by Abbendis to Josh and had been part of the Ouroboros organization for some time.
Since joining Ouroboros, they had also been exposed to the scientific culture of the Marvel Universe, so they weren’t ignorant of modern technology.
“What? A planet has self-awareness? My God…Dr. Grace’s hypothesis was true!” Quaritch couldn’t help but exclaim after hearing Koruno’s conclusion.
Dr. Grace Augustine (played by Sigourney Weaver), the lead of the Avatar Program, had tried to defect from the RDA along with Jake during the last war between humans and the Na'vi. She was mortally wounded by Quaritch during their escape and later died from her injuries.
After returning to Pandora, Quaritch reoccupied the previous human base and transferred all the data from there.
During the transfer, a researcher discovered one of Dr. Grace’s research logs, in which she proposed this very hypothesis—but she couldn’t confirm it.
Everyone, including Quaritch, dismissed the hypothesis at the time as delusional nonsense and one of the reasons for her betrayal.
But now, Koruno’s words had clearly confirmed Grace’s hypothesis—and if it had come from anyone else, Quaritch still might not believe it.
But this came from a supernatural being capable of using magic—personally dispatched by Josh. Quaritch had no choice but to believe it.
After all, since arriving in this world, the Shininghoof brothers had already demonstrated more than enough extraordinary ability.
“You mentioned Dr. Grace…who is she?” Koruno asked, curious after hearing Quaritch’s exclamation.
“A scientist who betrayed us—she’s already dead. She proposed the same theory you just did, but we didn’t believe her at the time,” Quaritch explained.
“Hmm, what a pity,” Koruno said with a shrug upon hearing that Grace was dead.
“So, this so-called nature spirit—is it the god that Mr. Kane was referring to?” Quaritch asked.
“To a certain extent, yes—it could indeed be called a god,” Koruno nodded.
“Now that we know the cause, I’ll ask the two masters to rest for a while. After I contact Mr. Kane, we’ll decide on the next course of action,” Quaritch said, nodding toward the two yak-men.
The Shininghoof brothers didn’t refuse and turned to return to their room to rest.
Communicating with the nature spirit might sound simple, but in reality, it was extremely exhausting—especially when dealing with a hostile nature spirit.
Moreover, as nature-based beings, the Shininghoof brothers really couldn’t stand the hellish scene outside the human camp’s defensive perimeter.
They could only shut it out of sight.
After sending the Shininghoof brothers back to their quarters, Quaritch returned to his office and contacted Josh again.
“Looks like you’ve gotten your answer,” Josh said as soon as the communication connected, judging from the look on Quaritch’s face.
“Yes, Mr. Kane, just as you predicted!” Quaritch repeated the Shininghoof brothers’ conclusion in full and then added, “I’ve already ordered the recall of all the proto-dragons. A bit later, I’ll arrange to have them and the two masters returned to you.”
“You mean, only the proto-dragons and the Shininghoof brothers were rejected? The dinosaurs weren’t?” Josh didn’t respond immediately, but asked with interest.
“Yes,” Quaritch nodded.
Now that was interesting—most of those dinosaurs were genetic recreations captured by Yuri during the Cretaceous period.
And the Earth of Yuri’s world clearly had no self-awareness.
The proto-dragons and Shininghoof brothers, however, were from Azeroth—and Azeroth’s will was, of course, the world soul: Azeroth.
As creatures of Azeroth, they naturally carried Azeroth’s aura.
In other words, what Pandora’s will was repelling was actually Azeroth —not all foreign creatures.
But why? Was it due to Azeroth herself, or did Pandora reject all similar existences? And what if it were Tiamut instead?
Josh couldn’t help but fall deep into thought.