After receiving William's approval, John maneuvered the divine body out of the formation and stood at the very edge of the cliff.
He had the divine body reload its gauss cannon with a new magazine and calmly said to Cortana, who was standing on the control panel:
"Check the status of the floating cannons, particle beam sword, and energy shield."
"Checking...
Check complete. All systems normal," Cortana replied.
"Mm-hmm," John then said in a deep voice over the comms, "Spartan A-001 preparing for jump."
With that, he had the divine body take a step forward and leap, free-falling into the rift.
"John, good luck," William's voice came through the comms.
"Hey," at the same time, there was Myron's teasing voice, "Remember to bring me some special... *zzzt*..."
Myron's words were cut off, and only the static sound of "zzzt zzzt" remained on the comms.
Through the panoramic screen inside the cockpit,
John saw that he and Cortana had completely entered this space leading to the Egyptian underworld.
Molten lava flowed all around, but its color was a bloody red, and the previous entrance had long since vanished.
It seemed this realm also affected communications.
"Master Chief..." Cortana turned to look beyond the screen and said with a hint of worry,
"I can't detect any change in position, nor can I receive external communications. It seems like we're floating in place..."
John's expression remained as unchanging as ever, and he said calmly, "Don't panic, there's always a way."
With that, John slung the gauss cannon horizontally behind the divine body's waist and drew the beam sword hilt from his left hip.
He gripped it with both hands.
"Vwooom—!"
He adjusted the particle beam's power to maximum, emitting an extremely dazzling pink light, and then swung it towards the side wall where the bloody lava flowed.
[John's 'Good Luck' ability detected to be active, successfully opening the entrance to Duat.]
Accompanied by a "whoosh—!" slicing through the air, the surrounding lava instantly vanished, replaced by a gigantic tunnel of solid rock.
The divine body also transitioned from its suspended and stagnant state back to continuous freefall, plummeting towards a faint red dot below.
Seeing this,
"Master Chief!" Cortana said joyfully, "I've detected that 45 kilometers below us is the exit of this tunnel!
And outside the exit, there seems to be a huge void!"
"Good."
John maneuvered the divine body to retract the beam sword hilt, activated the thrusters on its back, and adjusted the divine body's posture to accelerate downwards.
At this moment, Cortana's smile gradually faded, and her expression became somewhat serious.
Seeing his AI display such a look, John uncharacteristically asked, "Cortana, are you alright?"
"Huh?" Cortana was startled for a moment, then shook her head slightly and said, "I'm fine."
"That's good," John refocused on piloting the divine body and reassured her,
"Don't worry, if we help each other, we'll definitely get useful intel and get out of here safely."
"Heh heh," Cortana sat on the control panel and gently stroked John's right hand, saying,
"That's not what I'm worried about. I also believe you can do what you say. Actually, what I was wondering about just now was the depth of this tunnel."
"Tunnel depth?" John was a little puzzled.
"Exactly," Cortana looked up and met John's gaze, saying,
"To be honest, Umbrella's understanding of the universe might far exceed its understanding of Earth.
Ever since the boss founded the company, we AIs and researchers have focused our work on space colonization, thus neglecting the study of Earth."
"Indeed," John nodded slightly.
Cortana stood up, looked at the panoramic screen, gazed at the faint red light below, and continued to explain to John, "I can confirm that this rock wall structure definitely belongs to Earth.
But if we calculate from the surface of Egypt to 45 kilometers below... that would be the 'upper mantle' region, where it's theoretically impossible for a huge void to exist.
And..."
Cortana paused, her gaze fixed on the rock wall, "And the curvature of the rock wall is too smooth; it couldn't have formed naturally.
Through my analysis, I found that this tunnel was excavated 6 to 8 hours ago."
Hearing this, John's expression sank as he interjected, "Which is the time frame when this anomalous phenomenon erupted."
"Exactly," Cortana nodded.
And said, "The Soviet Union has a Kola Superdeep Borehole, with an exact depth of 12,262 meters.
And that twelve-kilometer depth took the Soviet Union over twenty years to achieve.
In comparison, to make the city of Cairo disappear and create a confusing distorted space, and to excavate 45 kilometers in an instant...
If we're talking about technological sophistication, this anomaly might far surpass Umbrella. I believe its classification should at least be...
Exafanistei class.
At least."
"Exafanistei..." John repeated in a low voice, his expression growing even more serious.
Cortana then said in a deep voice, "And those skeletons and mummies on the surface, as well as the six giant 'Anubis' we just killed, are very likely creations of the anomalous phenomenon."
A silence fell within the cockpit.
After a few seconds,
John gripped the control sticks with both hands and pushed them forward, accelerating the divine body's flight, still saying calmly and confidently,
"No matter what the classification, as employees of the company, it's necessary to contain it."
Hearing his words, Cortana also swept away her previous worries and shook her head, smiling at John, "John, you always give people an indescribable sense of security.
Alright, then let's go through hell together~!"
"Heh heh," John lifted his left hand and lightly patted the top of Cortana's head, correcting her,
"Don't forget this is a reconnaissance mission. Unless the situation is urgent, there's no need for combat, so don't forget you also need to find a way back."
"Oh..." Cortana pursed her lips and replied obediently.
Before long,
John maneuvered his divine body closer and closer to the 'red light dot', finally revealing a perfectly circular opening.
Whoosh—!
The divine body flew directly through the opening.
The view immediately opened up.
The space here was enormous, not at all like a mantle structure, and there was a solid surface below.
The space wasn't singular; there was another opening about five hundred meters high and wide in front of the divine body's view.
And providing light here was the scarlet lava at the edges.
Then John maneuvered the divine body downwards and saw dense crowds of 'people' on the surface.
These people wore modern clothing, their faces expressionless, and they were consciously queuing and walking towards that opening.
Cortana left the control panel, floated to the front of the cockpit, and leaned on the panoramic screen, saying,
"John, those people on the ground... it seems they are the humans who passed the weighing."
John didn't rush to answer, but instead maneuvered the divine body to land on the surface, half-crouching to observe the people up close.
And said, "Cortana, scan this space, and the specific status of these people in front of us."
"Yes," hearing John's command, Cortana finally returned to the control panel.
Her eyes emitted a faint blue light, using the divine body to enhance her own functions, scanning the topography here and those 'people'.
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