RAIDBOSS
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Chapter 31
🕑 Added 2024-04-16 22:07:40 +0000 UTCI hesitated as I stared back at the projection. She stood there, frozen in time, not a hair on her head moving. She was like a ghost. A projection from a formation wit a recorded message.
There was no way I could say no.
She had information about the Anti-Light Order — the group that had created the artifact that had given me power. Something so powerful it could instantly identify how I was broken.
And fix me.
I wanted to know. I needed to know. The truth might be worse than ignorance, but I would bear it all the same.
The organization was so powerful that they built something that stretched across the entire Bloodstone continent. The very spirit-veins we mined all connected to this one piece of artiface, something larger than the entirety of the scale of the Bloodstone continent.
And all I had to do to know about them was to say yes. I couldn’t afford to refuse.
I mentally selected the Y option of the prompt. It immediately exploded like glass, fragments of otherworldly burning green bouncing off the ground and smoking, physicalized and real.
The letters on the remaining system message were green and smoking. The projection of the woman on the other side blurred, moving rapidly. Her face shifted and contorted, and her words blended together into a high pitched whine before slowing.
I circled her. As I moved around her, she continued facing me, as if she was a two-dimensional image — a drawing on a piece of paper turning to face me. I kept my sword at the ready.
“…this message has been prerecorded for Anti-Light Heralds.” She spoke as if she was exhausted, as if she had just read a dozen other messages. Judging by how long she spent sped up, she probably had. “If you are receiving this message, the formation has detected that you hold an Anti-Light artifact left behind during one of our full retreats.”
That was interesting. Had the Anti-Light order maintained a presence on Bloodstone at one point? The System’s seeming desire for revenge spoke of a defeat there, too.
“Of course, it’s possible you inherited one…” The woman sighed. “Okay. Last message. I am Suyin of the Heavenly Pillar. I was born on a Void Ark in the Way Between Worlds.”
Suyin frowned. The soft look didn’t return to her face, replaced by hard lines. Her features were wrinkled with age. Yet she carried the air of a high realm cultivator, even in this ancient recording. Her bearing shined through even in this memory of a memory.
Around me, the formation spooled to life, the qi in the air tickling my senses as it passed over my skin. It was like static electricity, making my hair stand on end. The formation was more capable of manipulating qi than I was, even after enhancing my Willpower so far.
The more I thought about it, the less I believed that the Chambers were something simple like memories.
The Chambers of the Titanfall dungeon resembled what I had heard of a cultivator’s Inner World. Secrets always slipped, even if people hid them from me for ‘my own protection.’ In the Fourth Realm, a cultivator built an inner world, often reflecting the things most important to them in their life outside cultivation.
“Since you’re here… it’s more likely you’re a Herald than an Inheritor. An Inheritor receives a piece of Anti-Light Technology from their ancestors, while a Herald receives it somewhere else. Theft, purchasing, looting… it doesn’t matter. It would only bind to you if you were worthy of it. You’ve stumbled into an untouched Anti-Light ruin. If this place had been compromised, the Formation you’re standing within would have destroyed the entire island.
“The mission of our order is simple. Once, the cycle was healthy. Worlds grew from the trees, were born, and died, falling into the Sea of Change to be reborn as new trees. The Gods of that era allowed the cycle to continue. But that Era has ended.
“The Gods who have come to power across the many worlds today hoard their power in excess, refusing to give birth to new worlds and release what they’ve accumulated. This causes the lower worlds, like fruits on the many trees, to rot. Their people suffer, unable to progress, to cultivate, to level. The gods of Ludus Arbor are guilty of this crime. The Anti-Light Order attempts to fell the tree and continue the cycle. The tree must be felled to allow new worlds to be born. We have suffered defeat today.
“The Anti-Light Order is in full retreat from this world. As I speak, thousands are dying. Vascara has detected our presence and mobilized an army to rout us from the continent. We have failed to achieve a foothold to begin the Felling of the Ludus Arbor. Her people suffer because of our failure. Join us, that we may darken the Light of Creation and allow the Cycle to continue. Only by felling the World Trees can we end the suffering of the people of the Lower Realms.”
That was… disturbing. The Anti-Light Order, at their most fundamental level, sounded like insurgents. Like terrorists on the scale of worlds. Like rebels. I saw Governor Song’s face, his head locked in a palisade so that I could execute him as a child. I remembered that he tried to make it easier for me. Even as he died.
She extended her arms as if inviting me. A full, real smile bloomed across her face.
The formation around me hummed to life. A bar of black light erupted into the sky, a perfect circle all around me. I recognized it. It was the very same defensive formation that had bisected the desert Titan in two. A knot formed in my stomach. A knot formed in my stomach, a bad feeling creeping into me.
I only wanted to protect my own people. Then something else she had said clicked.
“Vascara? What do you mean Vascara? The noble house?” I asked. The System had said previously that the House Vascara was a dynasty that stretched across multiple worlds. They were enemies to the Anti-Light Order? Did Poppy know that?
The ghost didn’t respond, continuing a recorded message instead.
“Unfortunately, Anti-Light power is not something to be handled lightly. As you are now, you likely haven’t attracted much attention. Once you reach the Fourth Tier — level 250, or the Inner World Realm, it’s likely that you will be detected and hunted. I’m sorry. This — “ The recording of the woman threw her hands wide. A sad smile spread on her face. “Is partially a trap. To keep you here long enough to activate the formation. This teleportation formation will send you to us. You must understand. There is no one else who can teach you to wield our power, and no one else who can protect you.”
The woman fizzled out with an audible pop.
“What?” I asked, stunned. I looked around for an exit. There was none. A wall of pure Anti-Light energy blocked me in at all sides. It was just me and the rubble pile of golem corpses.
The circular chamber around me filled with the smell of smoke as the wall of black light collapsed downward, closing on itself to form a spinning sphere.
Any view I had of the island or sky were gone, replaced by a horrible dark closing in on me from all sides. I saw the light of stars hovering in the black. They continuously drew closer. I felt that I was being watched, that something was looking back at me.
My heart pounded in my chest. If this formation teleported me away, would the System be able to bring me back? Would the Rebound still activate?
It was likely they could stop that from happening. It was their own creation. Would this formation even work? It was just the memory of a formation. My eyes scanned the ground. There were formation anchors here at the center.
Would destroying them stop it? I had to try. I couldn’t let this happen. I wouldn’t let this happen. There were so many organizations — so many people telling me what my fate was and who I had to be.
I didn’t want any of the futures they demanded out of me.
The cultivation anchor nearest me was a symbol carved into the stone out of a material that [Identify] repeatedly failed on. But I could feel the qi in the air circling around it, being pulled away from my body. I wasn’t going to take a teleportation to an unknown world.
I stabbed my sword into the stone.
[New Quest!]
[1. Escape the Teleportation Array and Gale Titan Dungeon!]
[2. Use [Carve] 10 or more times!]
[Reward: 10 Spheres. One Level. An Influx of Qi and Change. Amount dependent on total remaining after carving the Gale Titan pocket world free from the Ludus Arbor. Continued freedom to pursue the downfall of the Gods of the Heavenly Pillar!]
The text burned green.
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! So... The terrorist rebels are actually the "good guys" because the existing order was corrupted to an extreme degree! I guess on a similar scale as locals and aboriginal people would fight against colonizers and would also end up killing "the innocent" in such a conflict. This really makes it interesting what the system is though, it can't be directly controlled by the God's or "the World Trees" (or it would seem a tree strange for it to cheerfully give a quest egging Sai on to "cause the downfall of the heavenly pillars" if it was), soooo is it something stretching through the entire multiverse? And some worlds were forcefully closed off, or something artificially created on many/most worlds but it's creators and controllers don't give a damn about the conflict (or are long gone).
Nifty
A knot formed in my stomach is said twice, typo????
