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Chapter 1,221.
🕑 Added 2024-03-18 20:36:44 +0000 UTCA profound and singular Chaos was born, bringing with it a gift of tumultuous clarity that transcended time and space. Last time, Zac was able to harmonize with the Calamity within the Perennial Vastness, exposing its true nature and purpose. Today, his mind was stretched even further, making him catch a glimpse of a potential future. Zac could almost touch it—the illusory, yet-formed tapestry representing the broken Peak of Chaos.
If he could just reach a bit further, he could—
Zac quickly guarded his heart and turned his sight away from the magical transformations in his chest. The allure of a perfected Dao was no less than the Sangha's promise or the insidious whispers of the remnants. Zac was painfully aware he was far from qualified to grasp those concepts at his current level. If nothing else, he would put himself in direct competition with both the System and the Heavens if he wanted to take the Dao of Chaos for himself.
Just approaching one of the seventeen peaks provided a unique vantage, even when he stayed in the shallows. The improved Glimpse of Chaos brought him closer to the Heavenly Dao, allowing him to understand what his benefactors meant before. Zac could sense changes in the tapestries of Creation and Oblivion. Authority that had been arrogated and monopolized for untold years was being relinquished.
This rotting dam of ancient wood had finally succumbed after Zac came along, allowing the water to flow into the tributaries on the other side. It wouldn't immediately mend the cracks covering the Peak of Chaos, but it would make the System's job easier. A stabbing pain forced Zac to retract his consciousness, and he realized streaks of Chaos-filled blood poured down his nose and ears.
Observing the Heavenly Secrets didn't come without a price. If he'd let his mind linger, his soul would most likely have shattered.
After retracting his consciousness to the mortal plane, Zac's vantage point remained extraordinary. The roiling clouds above acted as a bridge, allowing him to see whatever they covered. The clouds covered even more ground than he'd anticipated. They stretched well into the Zurbor sector, far beyond the planet they set off from.
Thousands of worlds had been drowned in darkness, and the animosity was so palpable that the planets trembled. The Kan'Tanu must be wondering whether final judgment had arrived, whether Karma had finally caught up to their ways. Thankfully, his subordinates had returned and closed the battlefronts hours ago.
In the other direction, the heavenly clouds dug deep into the outer rims of the Imperial Graveyard. Zac could see the cracks appearing on the endless line of repeating towers. They were the pillars of the Great Wall of Resolution, the impassable barrier that could hold off even Late Monarchs. It was impassable no longer, with the sections in the immediate vicinity flickering precariously.
It just needed a final push, and the fortress in the wall's center was the key. The Chapter of Carnal Resolution's headquarters was the main node and controller of the wall. So long as it was suppressed and isolated, the wall would lose most of its power. The pillars would crumble when losing their protection, and a gap would be opened until someone mended the weakness.
The Kan'Tanu were already an unorthodox faction that flaunted the Law of Balance with their sacrifice-based cultivation, making them an enemy of the Heavens and the System alike. However, the Heavens could be avoided, and the System wouldn't directly act against unorthodox factions without proper justifications. It would rather use them as training devices, just like in the intersector war.
So factions like the Kan'Tanu were safe from retribution, though they had to deal with fiercer tribulations and heart demons. Zac had set out to shatter this frail balance. Justification could be engineered, and light could be shed on those who hid in the darkness. The only problem was that the fortress was more than a week's travel from their current location, which was pushing it even for the boundless clouds.
Zac still had his misgivings about the Sindris Clan, but they were undeniably the best suited to solve this issue. The Sindris would infiltrate the stronghold, fanning the flames with Dao of Technology. It would draw the System's attention, which would likely result in the Heavens also descending.
The Sindris Clan had clearly gone above and beyond with their task. Zac couldn't sense exactly what was going on, but the gathering of Heavenly Wrath was almost as strong over the Chapter of Carnal Resolution as his immediate vicinity. Blinding shields and Guardian Treasures surpassing anything Zac had seen tried to resist a rain of pitch-black lightning.
It was a one-sided slaughter. Let alone suppressed, Zac wouldn't be surprised if the whole Chapter was erased from existence. Levying a permanent, devastating blow to the Chapter of Carnal Resolution was part of his best-case scenario. A significant portion of the Kan'Tanu's elites were gathered in that area. Taking them out should drastically lessen the pressure Zecia faced, allowing them to hold on a while longer. It would also reduce the dangers they'd face in the Imperial Graveyard.
None of that mattered if he didn't succeed in the next step of his plan. The scene of his immediate surroundings was no different than the ones the cultists faced far in the distance. The roiling cloud and their slow-moving arcs of annihilation were almost enough to make Zac's mind shut down from despair.
The oppression was so overwhelming that Zac wondered if his plan would even have worked without the extra ingredients that went into the Glimpse of Chaos. Zac's fifth and final fusion was different from previous rounds in multiple ways. It contained far more energy and Dao than ever before, and being split between two bodies did nothing to dilute the depths of the truths they held.
The him who got the fourth pieces from the Calamity would have been grievously wounded, possibly even crippled, by the formation process alone. Even the fourth creation had almost left him crippled, causing a lot of headaches during his core formation. And that was after immediately extracting the glimpse from his chest. However, it wasn't wrong to say Zac had changed even more than the glimpse since then.
His Draugr bloodline had awakened, and he'd taken another step forward with his Void Vajra Constitution. His Branches of Kalpataru and Pale Seal had also taken another leap forward, advancing them to Peak Branches with solid foundations to begin looking at Earthly Daos. Just as importantly, his pathways were greatly reinforced, and a Cosmic Core supported his cultivation.
The fused Remnant Energies that were far beyond what an E-grade cultivator could withstand only put him under strain, and his insights allowed him to exert a semblance of control. There was no need for him to release this treasure and expose it to storms outside. The glimpse would stay with him until the System upheld balance and gave him what he needed.
Zac moved in perfect sync, and his two bodies looked like puppets connected to the same strings. Yet, when influenced by Chaos, they moved in opposite directions. His human half appeared above the Yphelion. Almost no time had passed since his mind returned from A'Zu's and Be'Zi's side, and Sendor's barrier was still almost fully extinguished.
The close proximity to the Cosmic Vessel allowed Zac to reconnect with the internal systems. Zac's heart burned with fury upon realizing more than a dozen of his non-combat crew were dead. Most of his sealbearers had been knocked unconscious, seemingly by the resurrection of the monks and their Dharmic world.
Kruta sat in a pool of blood, the scorched corpse of one of the Revenants by his side. The other was contained by Ogras and Joanna, who seemed to have resisted the Heart World's influence with sheer force of will. No one was moving, and not just because Zac felt his mind move dozens of times faster than usual.
They had their hands full resisting the impressions and Daos that had seeped through the special dampeners installed throughout the Yphelion. They were only meant to resist the [Epiclesis Bell], but it had become a saving grace when the Buddha was born.
Zac snorted as he sensed the anomaly in one of the compartments. This wasn't the time to clean the slate. Sendor's protective bubble broke just as Zac appeared, and the old Realm Spirit left a final warning before dissipating.
'Be careful of the balance. The price of abiding creatures of a foreign sky is steeper than you realize.'
Zac took the warning to heart. Zac didn't understand exactly what Sendor was saying, but it wasn't hard to understand the gist of it. Sendor knew about his deals with the System, where he traded Chaos for favors. He also seemed to understand what the entity was, and that things were more complicated than Zac expected.
Still, could it compare to the Karmic Debt the System owed after Zac released the Flawed Authority? Zac refused to believe that was the case, and he extracted a sliver of the Chaos from his chest. The mote was dragged into a skill, and Zac groaned with pain when a sprawling jungle rose to enclose the Yphelion.
Zac wasn't deluded enough to think that [Apex Jungle] could withstand the crushing pressure that had exhausted Sendor's protective mark in seconds, let alone block the incoming bolts intent on erasing the whole quadrant. It was him marking his territory while displaying his determination.
The jungle looked decidedly different than normal. It was constantly shifting, looking like something conjured from a nightmare. Zac had no control over the alien trees that sprouted and disappeared, but he was still connected to the skill.
Zac looked at the roiling clouds in defiance, daring the Heavens to strike his domain. He was ready to fill any tree about to be struck by the pitch-black lightning with pieces from the glimpse. This was the only way he could think of that would let him protect the whole vessel and his crew within.
"Time to pay up."
The System's presence pressed down on him, and Zac felt some of its ruthless determination turn toward him. This was the angriest it had been since the Technocrat base, when Zac rejected its mission and focused on saving Kenzie instead. It wasn't even about about holding the glimpse hostage.
It was about preventing a cleansing wave of destruction from sweeping through the region. Sendor's warning echoed in the back of Zac's mind, but he refused to back down when the lives of his followers were on the line. Thankfully, the System relented, and a golden barrier appeared in a flash of light.
Zac exhaled in relief, even if his job wasn't finished. He could tell the protection would only last as long as his Chaos-formed skill. He furiously held onto the unstable connection while urging his other half forward. The sooner he wrapped things up, the sooner they could leave.
While one side became a sentinel standing guard over the Yphelion, the other moved through the collapsing corridor of Void. The fusion skill had left a meter-wide gap in reality, but such an aberration was doomed to quickly collapse. The oceans of Creation and Oblivion couldn't rebuff the dimensional pressure, and Zac's route to the bell was quickly becoming a death trap.
The mountain in his Soul Aperture descended, and he infused himself with the Bloodline Talent. His Chaotic Aura receded, triggering a warning thunderclap from the System. Zac paid it no heed, more focused on the transcendent feeling as his speed skyrocketed. Using Chaos Energy already let him move at a frantic pace by ignoring the logic of linear space. Activating his Bloodline Talent took it one step further.
He'd become one with the Void in a more palpable way since upgrading [Void Mountain]. He could feel the whole scar left from [Void Divide] like it was part of his body, and a slight push moved him through hidden paths that placed him right before the crumbling [Epiclesis Bell].
A rippling curtain of devilish energy fought against a sea of even darker lightning. Zac's mouth curved upward as he entered the gauntlet, seeing the end of his suffering in the clash. He only needed to let go, and it would all be over. He'd reached the end of his journey, and his heart sang with bliss over finally reaping the rewards. The storm of joyful sacrifice suddenly crumbled under Zac's staunch resistance and the protection of Chaos. Not even the entity's heretical madness could tame the Dao of Chaos.
Chaos rejected form, order, and definition, making it almost impossible to corrupt. The return of clarity brought agony, and Zac realized he'd already lost chunks of his body to errant streaks of annihilation. The power that had left Uona trembling with despair couldn't deal with the Heavenly judgment imposed on the foreign creature that had hidden inside the bell all this time.
The madness was already creeping back, the darkness seemingly attracted by Zac's clarity of mind. Zac knew he couldn't win a war of attrition with the entity, even if he somehow found a way to resist the lightning. The Glimpse of Chaos might hold a corner of a Peak Dao, but the glimpse's energy was at Half-step C-grade at best.
Surviving a moment was enough, and Zac didn't even have to voice his demand. Streams of golden lightning formed something like a Faraday Cage, fully separating him from the mayhem outside. The black arcs of annihilation were rebuffed as they tried to weasel their way through. They weren't exhausted, though, and they refused to give up. More and more gathered, becoming a second layer of protection against the entity's corroding influence.
The protection allowed Zac to gain his bearings, and he honed in on the [Epiclesis Bell] in the heart of the storm. The curtain of evil energies couldn't safeguard its sanctuary. Streaks of lightning pushed deeper and deeper in search of its target. The ancient metal that had survived countless years was rapidly crumbling under the relentless attacks.
Each clash completely disintegrated a piece of metal or a sliver of energy. The annihilation was absolute in a way that even eclipsed the Dao of Oblivion. Seeing the carnage made Zac's heart clench. Zac may have held back far longer than he wanted after the bell descended, but he'd never forgotten his goal of saving Vilari.
Zac had hated himself, or rather the loss of agency his lacking strength caused. Every breath wasted delayed Vilari's rescue and lowered her chances of survival. There was no telling what kind of effects a rampaging entity would have on its captive. Zac wouldn't wait a second longer, desperately holding onto the hope that it wasn't too late.
The System's protection had infuriated the Heavens, just like when it intervened during Zac's breakthrough. The Heavens were adamant to mete out punishment, and it actually seemed to have found a loophole. Streaks of purplish-back lightning formed a thin band of light in the curtain of crackling darkness.
It was the second strike of his tribulation, which had been belayed when he cracked open the bell. Only now, it absorbed slivers of the punitive lightninging, growing darker and darker as it approached. The System's protection wouldn't prevent the tribulation. It was a separate matter and something unavoidable.
Zac ignored the incoming tribulation, diving toward the fiercely guarded crack he'd opened up with [Void Divide]. The golden arcs of lightning flickered precariously as Zac entered the heart of the conflict. They held, and Zac was soon right in front of the crack. It was impossible to see anything inside, nor were there any hints of Vilari or her aura.
'Welcome, Chaosbringer,' a laughing voice emerged from the darkness. 'Is this what you envisioned? Does it live up to the desires in your heart?'
The rumblings of the collapsing oceans of Creation and Oblivion were cut off, as was the more immediate clamor of the entity's war against the Heavens. There was only suffocating darkness and an intense aura of wrongness.
'Of course, a hero needs to save the damsel to fulfill his destiny,' the voice taunted, coming from every direction. 'Only, what if the hero's quest was misguided? Where his hasty actions brought everything crumbling down? How would he feel, knowing he'd ruined everything with his own hands? Ignorance is the greatest of evils.'
Comments
Ithoughtofsomething
It wasn't even about about holding the glimpse hostage. Extra about
Kconraw
Thx for the chapter
Seth
I just got caught up (again) and hot damn! This is some great fucking payoff.
Jeff McCulley
To answer one question, the message Zac got from Ventus in Chspter 1,185 led to the infodump about the Imperial Graveyard in the latter half of Chapter 1,192. The Sindris is just a fairly ephemeral arrangement where they’re helping Zac basically in return for future good will—hoping he likes them down the road. The extent that we know of at the moment is that the set up mines to attract the attention of the System and Heavens to the Kan’Tanu station. Maybe the DOTF Wiki would help?
Chase C
I've been going at it for the past hour. My keyboard is about to break
Craig
f5 sect assemble!
NeverNaught
Best way to fix your problem is to go back some 70 chapters and reread it. Going with a chapter a day your forget all the hints and details, especially if your reading other stories.
Joey
That was just for conflict, I'd imagine he's going to use the lightning as a resource
Dan
Carl POV incoming.
Russell Widger
He literally got the Earthly Dao last chapter
Berry McCockiner
Idk how anyone could just casually take a break from the story right now!? It’s peaking and I can’t get enough
Skai
Dont forget that she wanted to make bell kill kultists fighting aliance forces at that moment
Ethan Norton
Everything you just complained about was either hinted at or could’ve been inferred from previous chapters.
Jamie Messier
He has an earthly dao already, I missed this.
Stephen Taylor
Too arrogant to be scared super villains never see the end coming.
Thenais
Zac serving chaos authority to a devil on a silver plate. What could possibly go wrong ? 😑
TSMS
This post doesn't necessarily has to do with this specific chapter, but since the start of the war and the numerous time skips I am totally lost. We missed so much of the planning that I don't know which factions are involved in what capacity at any given time. For example, there are a few paragraphs that tell us that Zac made contact with the Sindris and they made a deal, but we are not privy to any specifics. Then they are actively monitoring the situation that's currently unfolding. There's so many factions, so many plans and so many layers to the plans that anything can happen at any time. Like, how at the current mission we already knew that Kator and Zac don't have the exact same goals and planned to one-up each other at some time and then the Buddhist Sangha intercepts them and then with the summoning of the bell Autarchs from the Reaver clan come along and then the Buddhist Sangha also has Autarchs at the ready and then the system and the heavens get involved and then Zac uses the situation to advance in multiple dimensions and gets temporary Autarch powers. I'm just not able to follow this. If I don't know what any character is capable of and when even the main character is an enigma, I can't get invested in the story. The story needs to get either simpler or it has to take more time to develop. What is the deal between Zac and the Sindris? When and what did Zac exactly learn of the Graveyard? What are the other factions' stakes? ...? I know, some of the questions are answered in the story, but many things are also obscurred by time skips or only briefly mentioned. I lack the motivation to re-read the story to piece the information together and will likely take a break from reading the story altogether. Maybe I'll catch up with it in half a year or so.
Subliminary
Zac is now Emperor of Zecia due to his accumulation of points. Welcome to the Atwood Empire
Hartmann
Maybe it is the special scanner the Creators installed?
George
it's all layered a ton, like a dozen colors of really thick paint layered atop each other, then folded over and given a little stir - just a huge mess of different channels that relate to each other every which way, and then yeah it's way more dense than our world
Mahetze
@ByLordMatsLuck I don't think that's the case. The system hates technocrats for doing technocrat things/useing the dao of technology aso, not based on their race/origin. Wouldn't make that much sense, the limitless empire (and basicly all humans) are decendents from technocrats after all. The former technocrat got all his tech removed, so he's basicly a normal human again
Kris Boxall
Oh right, everything is so chaotic right now I forgot for a moment haha
Mouser
So, if he pulls this off, the leader board will say, you all playing for second place......and vouchers, Zac has all the points!
Palmer Evans
Same time he upgraded his Dao of Conflict to Earthly Dao of War
Kris Boxall
Thanks for the chapter! When did Pale Seal & Kalpataru advance from Late to Peak?
Jeff McCulley
Iz was staying on a D grade Dravorak world, not the Capitol, and she has consistently rebuffed attempted hangers-on much more powerful and connected than Reoluv. Not sure why he’d be there. Now, I could almost see Ykrodas Havarok having begged a ride with her, claiming acquaintance with Zac.
Jeff McCulley
Last I saw, the entity was a “she”, after it got done faking Zac.
Jeff McCulley
I don’t think that’s likely. Plus, here’s the definition of “cleaning the slate”: “to forget all the things that have happened or been done and start doing something again” That’s Kator. So…where in the heck is Catheya? She was right there last time everyone got feisty.
Shurjin
Dude, I i dont have it... you can probably find it on google. Pepe punch gif. 🐸
FriendorFo
Shurjin, you got a link for your profile pic? Cause that’s absolutely fantastic
ByLordMatsLuck
Great chapter TFTC
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter.
ByLordMatsLuck
Could it not be the former technocrat that. The system hates them and even with his body it might not be enough to hide from the system.
Lex Luther S
Vilari knew there was no escaping the bell. It had forcibly tied them together with that "gift" and would be able to track her down. She willingly released the seal she'd placed on the technique it had given her so that she could face it head on herself instead of dragging the calamity on the Atwood empire and zac. Her goal was to awaken the bells slumbering spirit and force the entities hand, though what was to come next isn't really known.
GMO pineapple
This is peak
Kyle
The autarchs are pinned down resisting the B-grade Creation and Oblivion energy within Void Divide, plus the annihilation lighting from the Heavens. This is all happening within moments of time resuming. Zac’s perspective just makes it seem longer because time is all Chaos-y for him right now.
caelym
This is peak dotf. Last chapter and this were bangers.
Shurjin
So what happened with all the autarchs? Did they all just stood in while Zac conjured chaos?
Jeff McCulley
Fine, I’ll ask. Given who Zac mentioned as being with the two Reavers who accompanied Kator, there’s only two people left who could possibly be in the “anomaly” on the ship. Two people with whom he might need to ‘clean’ the slate. We see Kruta, Ogras and Joanna. Which means that there are two glaring absences. So…is it Kator in there, hiding behind arrays? Or Catheya? Or maybe…Kator with Catheya? There’s been time for Zac’s crew to fight Kator’s two Revenants. There hasn’t really been time since whacking Zac for Kator to get aboard the ship and do anything more than hide. So…which is it?
Jeff McCulley
No way either has happened.
Jeff McCulley
That would be him on the ship. Zac mentioned the “anomaly” and “‘cleaning’ the slate”. There’s no one else he needs to clear a slate with. Kator is there hiding behind arrays. Unless you’re saying it’s Catheya? She wasn’t mentioned with the other three. That wouldn’t surprise me, either.
Jeff McCulley
This isn’t a Foreign God. They’re from pockets of reality from previous eras. This is from a different reality entirely.
Hartmann
I'd assume so. We wouldn't have heard of that function from Vilari if it wouldn't get used.
Joey
Is Vilari going to kick it out of the bell using the spirits?
Tyler S.
If only he could control the chaos in a way that he pulled multiple remnants from more of the bells and placed them in the center of the graveyard to get zapped
Joey
He still has to link up with Yselio
Palmer Evans
Yeah that’s kinda why I assumed each solar system had at least one habitable world. But if the System can just move whole solar systems or fold space then I could imagine the sector being much denser than a normal galaxy
SandreX
Yeah "willingly". Otherwise bell would hunt her down regardles of her choice, soo she decided to meet it head on and go with bell by herself.
Matthew Hay
Don't forget, integrated space is "man-made", where the System has plucked intelligent worlds and transported them to a new location. This new location is a whole bunch of folded, squashed, or weaved spacetime. So a whole sector may be the size of a single galaxy, or maybe it could be a sub-quadrant. Either way, it would be unnaturally dense compared to standard spacetime in unintegrated space, as the system has specifically searched through unintegrated space to find the interesting bits.
frankie doerr
Remember it’s only technically been seconds since shit happened
Palmer Evans
Can someone pls help me imagine the interstellar scene going on here? They are all hovering in space with the wall of the Imperial Graveyard off in one direction, right? The tribulation is covering thousands of planets, so even assuming every solar system has a habitable world, the span of the tribulation is hundreds or thousands of light years across?
TKOva
The entity thinks that he can fuck with Zacs mental? Ohhhh boy
Darnell Maxwell
Bitch, who u calling a damsel!
Palmer Evans
No way Kator dies off screen or in such a fashion
Dylan Alexander
You know, I’m pretty sure Vilari went willingly into the bell, no? Makes you wonder why she’d do that, unless she gets something important from it. I’ve always wondered if Zac’s need to save his friends ends up messing up their cultivations.
Joey
Going to be awkward for the Foreign God when Zac knows what it is
Joey
We need the Reoluv pov of this because he should be with Iz
Lex Luther S
Pshh all bluster. Th is thing is scared, I have no doubt. It knows zac is its only lifeline at the moment, and vilari is the key to its escape. Otherwise, if it leaves with vilari dead, it knows there's no way zac won't hunt it down to the ends and the very depths of the multiverse and it had seen first hand the Chaos he can bring.
Tyler S.
I feel like ive been hit with deja-vu, good chapter TFD thanks
Saijibott Saijibott
This is why I subbed on patrion. It's for these dope ch. 😈
Craig
Oh man, I still hope we get a reaction shot from Krator or someone else on his ship
Russell Widger
Arrogated is the right word here
Orims
He is not letting it go period. I think that by the time he is B grade his new hobby will be to find the rest of the bells and send heavenly tribulations on them.
Laura Pilkington
now that’s an opener worthy of the devil
Joey
Nah, he probably ran for the hills
Marcus Elebrite
This mini-arc goes insanely hard. Zac is a baller, wiping out possibly dozens of C grade cultivators, millions of their subordinates, and crippling 4 Autarchs. If Ogras wasn't busy shitting himself trying to survive he would be screaming and crying uncontrollably.
Matthew Hay
Isn't he the anomaly in one of the compartments? Probably that floating orb he left to watch Zac was some sort of backup plan for Kator.
FriendorFo
“Mama” bear Zac fittin to go HAM if that’s the case
Brett Labat
Yikes, hope vilari is good
Joey
I don't think Kator is making it back to the ship
Palmer Evans
Zac ain’t letting this entity go peacefully if he’s killed Vilari or warped her beyond help…
Mike
dang too fast. TFTC
Jeff McCulley
Ripz
Woohooo this the strongest moment of all 1200 chapters ! Zac getting stronk
Andrew
Thank you!
James Faulkner
Tftc!
Ryan Pepp
TYFTC!
Gut
Finally had no work due to weather condiotions lol. Ngl this is my highlight of the day
erik balsbaugh
3
James Short
Second
RGrocks
close
Stephen Taylor
First!
