The dark passage was obviously a Spatial Passage. Upon stepping inside this passage, Merlin's consciousness black out, and he was transported to a colossal subspace.
Arriving in this subspace stunned even the well-traveled Merlin. In this almost endless subspace, there was an incredibly humongous vessel almost as big as the sky.
Seeing this humongous vessel, Merlin was immediately reminded of the futuristic space warships depicted in the fantasy movies in his past life. This humongous vessel was inconceivably huge. Even the three-headed beast would seem minuscule next to it.
This was obviously a warship!
Only that the warship had been broken into two. Its hull was completely fractured. Even so, the ice-cold warship still gave Merlin a sense of imminent danger.
"What is this place?"
Merlin looked up and noticed that there were stars twinkling beautifully above his head, looking like an endless starry sky. There was nothing under his feet though. There was no land whatsoever. Evidently, this was a perfect subspace that was completely independent of the Glorious Land.
Merlin was no stranger to subspaces. It was possible for a Great Legend to carve out an independent subspace. It was just that the subspace carved out by most Legends were too small, perhaps only slightly bigger than the subspace contained in most spatial rings.
In reality, only those who became Great Legends would be able to transfigure spatial rings. Moreover, the Great Legends would usually carve out an independent subspace to put larger items that could not fit inside their spatial rings.
The more powerful a Legend was, the bigger the subspace they could carve. This subspace was so vast that he could not find its boundaries even after extending his Mind Power. This subspace was definitely not carved out by an ordinary Legend.
If one became an Ultimate Arcane Wizard, one could carve out not just a subspace but a brand-new dimension. For example, the three great Arcane Cities were, in fact, new dimensions that were carved out by the three Ultimate Arcane Wizards.
"Such a colossal subspace! I'm afraid even an Honored Legend would not be able to carve this!"
Merlin was mesmerized, not just by the humongous warship but also this colossal independent subspace.
Swish! Swish!
Two figures emerged from behind Merlin. They were Wizard Tamo and Wizard Giles. They were noticeably stunned as well when they saw that the inner chamber was actually this independent subspace.
They were especially shocked to see the broken warship. Their jaws had gone slack, and they could not speak at all.
"This is What is this place? And this giant vessel, what is it?"
After all, Wizard Tamo had only ever lived in the Glorious Land. With his limited experience, he was naturally unaware that this was an independent subspace which could only be carved out by a Great Legend.
As for the warship, even Merlin was not sure why it had existed in the Glorious Land and inside the subspace carved out by a Great Legend.
"Giant vessel Now I recall, Ozmu has many completed ancient scrolls. One of the events described most frequently is a massive war that happened over three thousand years ago. According to the scrolls, the great Molta Empire had encountered an unprecedented crisis. From the outside world came a giant vessel the size of the sky that was far more powerful than any Spell Caster casting tool transfigured by the Great Alchemists. A single beam of light shot out by the giant vessel could easily destroy an entire city Don't tell me, this is the mysterious giant vessel described in the ancient scrolls to be as big as the sky?"
Excitement glimmered in Wizard Tamo's eyes. He had thought that the ancient scrolls had been erroneous. How could there be a powerful giant vessel that was even more powerful than all casting tools?
Moreover, a giant vessel the size of the sky was practically unimaginable to them. At one point, he also wondered whether it was merely a delusion. He did not think that the legend would be true.
"Giant vessel"
Merlin mumbled under his breath. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration popped into his mind. Last time when he had obtained the Ship of Nikola in the Glorious Land, he found out that the Spell Casters had waged a war against a mysterious civilization when they first stepped into the Void Zone.
That mysterious civilization was very different from the Spell Caster civilization. They had massive warships as big as the sky. Even Great Legends could not defeat these vessels. Eventually, it was the Arcane Wizards' intervention that had managed to stop this extraordinary civilization.
Afterward, Merlin found out the name of this civilization for the first time when he went to the Void Zone: the Atlan civilization. The war had not ended yet. Although the Atlan civilization had been banished back to their origin dimension, one of the Ultimate Arcane Wizards of the Spell Caster civilization stayed back to guard against the Atlan Dimension. In other words, the war with the Atlan Dimension had continued till today.
"So, is this the Atlan civilization's warship?"
Merlin did not dare underestimate the Atlan civilization. After all, due to the carelessness of the Spell Caster civilization back then, the Atlan civilization managed to spread the flames of war all the way to the Glorious Land. This had caused irreparable damage to the Glorious Land, and it had yet to recover from them now.
The reason for the legacy gap in the Glorious Land, as well as its gradual fall from grace, were all closely related to the Atlan civilization.
Just as Merlin prepared to go closer, a layer of misty grey light suddenly appeared. The familiar aura that Merlin had sensed from the outer chamber emerged again.
"Maxim?"
Merlin's expression grew hesitant as he looked at this layer of misty grey light. This was clearly a Maxim consolidated by a Great Legend! The humongous warship was encapsulated by the Maxim.
"Wizard Merlin, you said that this is a Maxim? The Maxim that could only be consolidated by Great Legends?" Wizard Tamo and Wizard Gilles' voices trembled.
Merlin glanced at Wizard Tamo. He naturally understood the excitement and thrill in their hearts. Not a single Great Legend had been born on the Glorious Land ever since the collapse of the Molta Empire.
The lifelong dream of these Great Wizards was to become a Great Legend. Now that they had stumbled across a Maxim of a Great Legend here, how could they not be excited?
"Yes, this is a Maxim consolidated by a Great Legend!"
Merlin no longer paid any attention to Wizard Tamo and Wizard Gilles after that. Instead, he stared closely at this layer of misty grey Maxim. He could sense that this Maxim was fluctuating rapidly.
Splash!
Suddenly, the Maxim trembled and vibrated like water ripples. A tall puppet materialized from within the Maxim. This puppet's eyes were hollowed out. It spoke in a deep voice when it saw Merlin, Wizard Tamo, and Wizard Gilles. "Finally, someone is here again! You're all Spell Casters, so you are allowed to come here as per Master's requirements. Come, follow me."
"Master?"
Merlin's heart skipped a beat. The fact that this puppet could walk freely inside the Maxim meant that it must have been left behind by the Great Legend who had wielded the Maxim. Merlin would not be able to break this Maxim even if he had used up all of his strength without the accompaniment of this puppet.
This was by no means a simple Maxim!
"Follow me, and don't mess around!"
Merlin warned Wizard Tamo and Wizard Gilles walking behind him softly. Then, he took a deep breath and looked at the passage opened by the puppet. With Wizard Tamo and Wizard Gilles in tow, Merlin flew into the passage swiftly.
Once they had passed through the Maxim, the first thing Merlin did was to look at the humongous warship. Merlin could not see this warship clearly before due to it being isolated by the Maxim.
Nevertheless, he could still feel it's threatening aura.
Now that they were observing this warship close-up, Merlin felt an even stronger threat coming from it. The dark and ice-cold metal emitted a faint sheen. On the warship stood rows of black cannons that gave Merlin a spine-tingling chill. It felt more dangerous than a Great Legend.
"This is the Atlan civilization's warship?"
Merlin finally could not hold back from asking the puppet. He knew that this puppet surely had some ounce of knowledge.
"Oh? You know about the Atlan civilization? Where did you come from?"
The puppet peered at Merlin curiously.
"The Void Zone!"
After a slight pause, Merlin uttered these three words.
"What? The Void Zone?"
A fiery glow appeared inside the hollow eyes of the puppet to show its excitement and shock.
"Since you've returned to the Glorious Land from the Void Zone, I'll tell you. Yes, this warship indeed belongs to the Atlan civilization's fleet. Although it has been destroyed by Master, it's still an empire-level warship. It's normal for you to sense its threat."
The puppet chattered cooperatively. It seemed that Merlin's identity as a Spell Caster from the Void Zone had eased a lot of its concerns.
"Empire-level warships? I'm not very familiar with the Atlan civilization. Can you elaborate on that?"
Merlin was mystified. He was very unfamiliar with the Atlan civilization. He had heard of its name occasionally but did not know of the history behind it.
The puppet explained in detail, "The Atlan civilization is a very unique civilization. Their physical bodies are not very powerful. They're actually not much different from the Normies. In fact, compared with the civilization tribes in the Void Zone, you could say that they're them weak! However, they managed to develop some very powerful tools. These tools are somewhat similar to the Spell Casters' casting tools, and the most powerful tool is none other than these warships! The Atlan civilization's warships are generally classified into city-level, empire-level, dimension-level, and according to legends, void-level!"
"A city-level warship possesses powers comparable to a Great Legend whereas an empire-level warship is comparable to an Honored Legend. As for the dimension-level warship, well, it has once killed a Great Lord!"
This was the first time Merlin had heard so much about the Atlan civilization. He frowned and said, "So does that mean that a void-level warship is comparable to an Ultimate Arcane Wizard?"
The puppet shook its head incessantly. "It's not that simple to achieve the level of an Ultimate Arcane Wizard. Among the millions of civilization tribes in the Void Zone, how many civilizations do you know have given birth to an Ultimate Arcane Wizard? Only a small handful has managed to produce an ultimate existence. Although the Atlan civilization's void-level warship is very powerful, it still unable to rival an Arcane Wizard. Nonetheless, even the mightiest Lord would not be a worthy opponent of a void-level warship!
"Not to mention, if the Atlan civilization achieved an ultimate existence, why would they remain suppressed in their origin dimension? The reason the war had lasted for so many years is due to their caution against the ultimate existences. Perhaps, there is something in the Atlan civilization that makes the Ultimate Arcane Wizards wary, therefore they are unable to destroy the Atlan civilization completely."
Merlin nodded. The Atlan civilization was very secretive in the Void Zone. In fact, most of the Great Legends were unwilling to talk about the Atlan civilization. Otherwise, it was impossible Merlin still did not know much about the Atlan civilization after staying in the Void Zone for such a long time.
"By the way, which Wizard is your Master?"
Merlin spared a glance at the puppet and was very curious about the identity of its Master. Firstly, the puppet knew so much, and secondly, this empire-level warship which was comparable to an Honored Legend had been easily destroyed this puppet's owner. Hence, he must at least be an Honored Legend.
"You'd only be qualified to learn of Master's identity if you can pass Master's first challenge!" the puppet replied coldly and did not answer the question.