Codex

Commander-in-Chief of the Milky Way Quila Theater

A thirty-five-year-old English aristocrat and Commander-in-Chief of the Milky Way Quila Theater. He personally announced the birth of the Claude Engine in Brown Star Square, but fell into the abyss of paranoia after his two sons died violent deaths one after another. He regarded the Infernals as "neither-fish-nor-fowl contaminants," brutally slaughtered the Fire Fiends, and was finally killed in a Prague tavern under siege by the Infernals, his left pinky toe chopped off. His corpse was buried in London by his adopted daughter Louise—beside the grave of his old comrade-in-arms, Byrne. After death, history textbooks branded him an "ultranationalist terrorist," but Claude's dying words—"It was I who harmed him"—were heard only by Claude himself.

Discoverer of the Hypersignal · Inventor of the Engine

He discovered the hypersignal and invented the spatial transfer engine, yet at the announcement ceremony, he never heard Douglas say on his behalf, "Cannot be used on living things"—and from then on, hundreds died in teleportation accidents. In 2512, he was imprisoned in the Bastille on three charges: endangering social security, disseminating extreme science, and corruption. Officially, he suffocated himself with a plastic bag in prison, but in truth, he died at the hands of the Invisible Ones. Half a century later, his name was completely erased from history textbooks, the hypersignal was renamed, and the engine was attributed to Bray. Only Bruce Sinclair spoke the name "Claude" once more at a press conference—yet no one remembered who he was.

Major General of Waldo

A twenty-five-year-old young general, born in Waldo, with a father from Paris. Ordered by Douglas to attack the last base of the Fire Fiends, he found the enemies had all committed suicide and died suddenly; the base was completely empty. He shot his escort guards and severed his own right hand to fulfill a lie of "saving a general single-handedly," and under Douglas's instructions, crippled the diary-writing war correspondent Marjorie. After being reassigned to Paris, he refused medical treatment that could have cured his tumor and died alone—every spring, he had gone to California to place three roses at Marjorie's tombstone, because that naive diary contained the words: "I like roses best."

Adopted Daughter of Douglas · Doctor of Literature

She was an orphan in an orphanage, chosen at first sight by Douglas, who had just resigned—which was actually a poster guidance secretly arranged by Byrne. She studied for her doctorate in literature at Charles University in Prague, making a group of Infernal friends and dating Marvin Strong, for which she often argued with her father. The day Douglas died in the tavern, she said to Marvin, "Please call me Louise Cromwell." From then on, she severed her past love, leaving an X-shaped scar on her face. Years later, she moved back to Brown Star and married Jason Charles, a veteran of the Fifth Division—that fear-of-death private from the unit disbanded by Douglas.

NASA Expedition Leader · Discoverer of Limonite

The most outstanding scientist of the last century, rumored to have lived for four hundred years. In 2068, he led a five-man NASA expedition landing on Triton to investigate Neptune's magnetic field shift. They encountered a cryovolcanic eruption, and their ship plunged deep into a ground fissure. Expedition member Alexander was killed in the crash, Leng Yan lost an arm, yet when he woke, he had inexplicably returned to his study on Earth. He was Claude's mentor, the discoverer of limonite and the solar sail, who ultimately died of illness in prison under the charge of "theft." The group of Invisible Ones who accompanied him to Earth are still searching for the Source Stone to this day.

Humboldt University Department of History · Driver of Repeal

He was brought home from a Berlin trash heap by the Infernal sanitation worker Sara. Before age eight, he did not even have an identity, yet at seventeen he relied on his photographic memory to gain admission to the Humboldt University Department of History. In a public speech, he denounced Douglas as an "unpardonable extreme terrorist," called Claude a "scientific fraud," rallied support for Bray and Bruce, and pushed through the repeal of multiple clauses in the Infernal Control Act. After his adoptive mother Sara passed away, he stayed behind closed doors—never drinking, ignoring political affairs, reading when awake and sleeping when tired—until one day Zhu Weichang called out outside his door, and he answered no more.

Governor of the North American Union · Bloodkin

Born in San Francisco in 2569, her grandmother Olivia cursed her as a "jinx" and a "demon" from the moment she was born. She had two fangs; at twenty-six, a blood test following a fall revealed she was Bloodkin—Type H blood, referred to colloquially as vampires. She paid off her grandmother's seven hundred thousand in medical bills by working at a supermarket, then enforced a curfew in Los Angeles with an iron fist, placing the decree above the Alliance constitution, and was judged by outsiders as cold-blooded, a formidable woman, and unfeeling. At thirty, she cut her lip and tasted her own blood, finding it "so sweet and clear"—afterward, rumors spread that she went to prisons to drink the blood of death row inmates, though no one ever truly saw it.

President of the VE Merchants' Guild · Superstarkin

A Superstarkin whose parents were killed by Alliance police on charges of treason, he grew up in an orphanage. He began by telling fortunes on the streets of Los Angeles, where patrolling police beat him into a lifelong disability, confining him to a wheelchair, before he rose to become a North American tycoon on the back of his bestselling book *Earth's Past* and the VE Merchants' Guild. Unpredictable in mood, at times laughing, at times glaring fiercely at you, members both feared and believed in him; he insisted, "I have no secret recipe for making people wealthy, I merely let them discover their own strengths." After the QFC collapse, he suddenly became able to walk, his ALS cured without medication, and Monica appointed him North American Minister of Finance and Minister of Education.

Joffrey Masonic Order Warsaw Branch · Superstarkin

A Superstarkin born in 2080, his left eye covered by a black patch—"This is how my eye went blind," he said, "but my soul can still see." He applied to Stanford University repeatedly, only to be rejected each time because the admissions office said, "You cannot find freedom." His friend Colin was admitted smoothly. Outraged, he joined the Joffrey Masonic Order, advancing from the Los Angeles branch to core administrator of the Warsaw branch, regarded by Rod as his foster son. While handing out grain on the streets of Warsaw, several children pulled off his eyepatch and mocked him as the "Blind Chairman." Enraged, he stabbed a young child to death and was sentenced to thirty years in prison. From then on, Warsaw's Masonic Order vanished.

Founder of the Joffrey Masonic Order · Former Richest Man in the World

Human, born into generations of farmers, he was admitted to MIT only through the financial support of his teacher, Yvette Steele. After receiving five million in a work injury settlement from the Los Angeles government, he resigned and founded the Joffrey Masonic Order in Washington. The initiation rite involved carving an inverted "W" into one's arm. Single-handedly, he built the Joffrey Foundation and the QFC cryptocurrency; the foundation surged two thousand five hundred times, elevating him to the world's richest man and earning him both the Human Rights Award and the Social Freedom Award. In 2613, a solar flare crashed QFC to 0.01 Alliance Dollars. Saddled with the stigma of a financial scam, he served ten years in prison. An era came to a close.

Mayor of Berlin · Half-Infernal

Mayor of Berlin, born in Tianjin. His father Zhu Changbo was the Vice Mayor of Berlin, and his mother was an Infernal. Born obese, with red skin and yellow cheeks, he was mocked throughout his school years as a "yellow-brown pig." Hubery regarded him as a younger brother; pushed by Hubery, he first became the acting mayor of Prague, conducting "governance from the air" while far away in Berlin. When he was eight or nine years old, he clutched asthma medicine while watching his mother suffocate to death. Afterward, he confessed to a drunk Hubery, "I just held the medicine like this and wouldn't give it to her... it was actually quite fun"—yet he always claimed to the outside world that his mother had died of illness.

Leader of the Valdos Nebula

Leader of the Valdos Nebula, in office for over twelve thousand years. His body remains remarkably healthy, entirely owed to the nourishment of the artificial star Apocalypse-β. Valdos's leadership system was established by ancient masters as a lifelong tenure. Kasar improved Apocalypse-β, expanding its range for absorbing source energy and dark matter so vastly that stars on the edges of the Doghead and Wulo Galaxies were drained of energy, leaving border planets without gravity to drift erratically. Under his rule, the Valdos Tower overlooks the universe, while the nebula itself slowly collapses. Elders prophesy that in less than a millennium, it will detach from the Primal Universe.

Inventor of the Bruce Engine

He was originally Bray's follower and the modifier of the "Bray Engine," but broke with Bray over naming rights. At an academic forum, he publicly exposed a fatal flaw in the Bray Engine—that it could kill innocent people within its radius. Soon after, he introduced the Bruce Engine, which had virtually zero side effects. At the launch conference, he named the engine "the Claude Engine—Bruce Modification," vindicating a genius forgotten for half a century. Deep within the Earth, he also discovered blazing sun ore, and extracted from source light the memory-erasing "Bruce Flash." On August 27, 2603, he died of illness at the Berlin Royal Hospital. A stellar fleet escorted his ashes to Oumen, a planet on the outermost edge of the Milky Way, scattering them into cosmic dust.

Anomaly 001

The lowest rank of anomaly creatures, invisible to the naked eye. Only the source light invented by Claude—light stripped from dark matter using the hypersignal at 20,000 Hz—could force them to reveal themselves and go dormant for fifteen seconds. Their arms were like mantis scythes, easily slicing through titanium alloy plates, yet their heads were small and fragile, easily severed by an ordinary machete. They originally came to Earth alongside Gao Fangwen, seemingly in search of the Source Stone. Shi Xunchao, Claude, and Gao Fangwen all died by their hands, while the memories of the investigators were erased one by one by the Bruce Flash.

Anomaly 002 · Mars

The first large-scale anomaly creatures, appearing like uninvited guests from the day humanity began mining on Mars. Enormous in size, their most horrifying trait was that upon death, smaller Devourers would burst from their bodies to continue attacking. Multiple Martian bases were abandoned because of them. Humanity paid a heavy price to capture them, ultimately discovering they feared fire, which allowed them to be wiped out completely.

Anomaly 003 · Triton

Deadly creatures on Triton, possessing immense self-healing capabilities. Their wounds closed automatically, and though slow-moving, their swarm tactics made them a fatal threat. After Gao Fangwen's expedition team perished completely, humanity repeatedly sent investigation teams to Triton, none of whom ever returned. The final video footage showed that those people had all turned into Ghouls.

Anomaly 004 · Tropical Rainforest

About eight feet tall, with flesh swords growing on its hands that easily pierce human bodies yet cannot penetrate armor. It was first discovered in a tropical rainforest in East Asia: an expedition was attacked, and cells not belonging to humans were extracted from the surviving skin tissue of its members. The authorities designated it based on this as the Deathsworn—another visitor not of this universe.

Primal Object of the Universe

The primordial object of the universe, also known as the Pure Source Stone. Only four exist in the entire universe—Valdos holds one, one is scattered on Earth, and the remaining two are unaccounted for. Legend has it that the universe was born from the explosion of a massive Source Stone, containing the fundamental force behind all things. Upon activation, it radiates a green light. In that cramped little room in the Virdo River Economic District, a flash of green light, and four people vanished into thin air. It is the target sought tirelessly by the Invisible Ones, and the root of two billion years of civil war on Valdos.

Necrodelirium

A strange disease triggered by exposure to the Source Stone, officially named Necrodelirium, known among common folk as 'the undying cancer' or 'the cursed affliction.' Patients unconsciously make bizarre expressions or utter shrill cries, unstoppable no matter the shouting or shaking—the body moves, but the mind is dead, akin to brain death yet not brain death. Some patients even display biting symptoms. The mode of transmission is unknown; some say water, some say air, while others whisper: perhaps all of us are already infected.

The First Spatial Transfer Device

The first spatial transfer device in human history, compressing dark matter and source energy to launch matter to its destination through quantum entanglement—yet the destination was difficult to control; two transmissions from the same location could arrive at entirely different places. It could not be safely used on living creatures; official statistics recorded 234 deaths from transmission accidents between 2500 and 2510. In 2512, it was explicitly banned by the Alliance. Claude was thrown into prison, the engine was stolen and renamed by Bray, and the inventor's name was quietly erased from all history textbooks.

Memory-Stripping Flash

Full name "Memory-Stripping Flash." Crafted by Bruce Sinclair from substance extracted from source light, it can smooth the cerebral cortex, causing amnesia precise down to a specific day. Before its creation, the Alliance Anomaly Task Force dealt with those who knew too much through "human stripping"—commonly known as silencing by murder. The truth of Shi Xunchao's death, the contents of Top Secret File 021—every police officer who attempted to investigate had their memories after the critical date wiped away by this flash.

A 298-Page Racial Shackle

A bill totaling 298 pages, it defined the social status of the Infernals down to the smallest detail: forbidden from reading, keeping pets, or appearing in public places under the age of eighteen, and restricted to high-end production activities such as mining and manufacturing. Not until Aie Koichi was elected leader of the Workers' Association and Hubery pushed from behind the scenes were certain clauses gradually repealed. Yet in places where ethnic sentiment ran high, it remained an invisible shackle—Douglas's neighborhood still welcomed no Infernals to this day.

Two Hundred Dead, Five Hundred Wounded

Drunk in a Prague tavern, Douglas shouted, "I regret not killing all the Fire Fiends and Infernals." He was immediately mobbed and killed by Infernals, his left pinky toe severed. The slaughter ignited a bloodbath between the Fiend-Slayer Party and the Infernal Party. Roughly two hundred died and five hundred were injured. Humans took to the streets holding signs reading "Prague Yes, Infernals No." A protester speaking before live broadcast cameras was shot dead on the spot. The Alliance army surrounded the square, hunted down participants, executed the police chief by firing squad, and removed the mayor from office—yet Prague returned to its old path once more.

Cryptocurrency · Solar Flare

A cryptocurrency issued by the Joffrey Foundation, built on the Type II hypersignal band—five times faster than standard radio waves, but sacrificing resistance to solar flare interference. From an issue price of 0.5 Alliance dollars, it surged to 350,000 per coin, a jump of over ten-thousandfold. The Foundation held 99% of the supply. The VE Association warned it was a Ponzi scheme, but no one listened. In 2613, a solar flare struck through the Type II signal. QFC plummeted to 0.01. Andre, the richest man in Eastern Europe, jumped to his death; Rod went to prison for ten years under a cloud of infamy; and Milo, bound to his wheelchair, suddenly stood up.

Valdos's Gravitational Anchor

Two stars within the Valdos Nebula: Apocalypse-α is a white dwarf, and Apocalypse-β is an artificial star equivalent to the Sun. Together, they maintain the gravitational balance of this small nebula stranded between the Doghead Galaxy and the Wulo Galaxy, keeping Valdos unaffiliated with any galaxy. Apocalypse-β is the sacred site and energy source of the Valdosians. Under the modifications of Kasar Rim, it devours increasingly vast spans of source energy and dark matter. Because of this, the nebula is slowly collapsing—the elders predict that within a thousand years, it will completely sever itself from this universe.

Nine-Kilometer Transparent Observation Tower

A transparent metal observation tower nine thousand meters tall, through which the Valdosians constantly overlook the universe. Basement level one is a vast, circular field of white glazed glass. At its center, guarded by opaque black metal, lies a Pure Source Stone larger and clearer than Earth's Source Stone, surrounded by a fence of blue crystalline ore rich in psychic energy. Upon activation, the circular field triggers a psychic storm to power the Source Stone, transmitting anyone standing atop it to any location in the universe—the destination determined by the consciousness of the Valdosian light sphere.

Planet Quela C · Ore Vein Base

Planet Quela C, colloquially called the Brown Star due to tens of thousands of limonite deposits scattered across its surface, is the Alliance's largest ore vein base. Thirty years ago, Quela β collapsed into a miniature black hole, leading Claude to discover the hypersignal. In Star Calendar 30921, Douglas announced the birth of the engine in this plaza, where Thomas lost his life to spatial fluctuations. It is the starting point where Douglas lost everything, and the place Louise finally returned to dwell—the plaza statue was changed from Douglas to a young boy pointing toward Earth, the letters for "Cromwell" on the base tile worn beyond recognition.