Mornn
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Chapter 635 - Paradise Toybox
🕑 Added 2025-03-06 17:00:15 +0000 UTC“Hard to believe the ebb comes from these,” Alith commented, playing around with one of the fruits she just harvested. Despite it shining once it was taken from the root, the light changed nothing. Perhaps the palace was just already too unstable, but the fruit’s light failed to bring the group to the light world.
“Maybe we can bring one back to check in a more controlled environment, but that’s how they were in the lab at least.”
“We’ll see how it goes, still got our emergency escape orb if needed. Hopefully it’ll work. But what now, throne?” Alith asked.
“That is where the spell is supposed to be… Can you lead us there?”
“We can!” Bookie answered, “we had to search the crown in it, follow me!”
“Wait wait, Bookie. Too dangerous. Get the rat to scout ahead.”
The group walked through the abandoned palace, constantly getting thrown in and out of the light world. Alith and Bookie already knowing their way around was a great help, and it seemed none of the deep creatures actually ventured inside of the palace for some reason, despite there being some openings in the ceilings and walls. The stalkers and other monstrosities would creep around the edges, walk on the other side of walls and windows, but never enter. As they progressed the tree’s roots took up more and more space, it was obvious that they were walking toward the tree.
The walk was relatively uneventful until, weaving their way through the thick roots blocking the path, they entered the throne room.
The base of the gigantic tree stood there, like a wall of black and golden bark separating the throne room into two halves. Besides that and the usual roots and dust, there were very few things left aside from debris, the throne, and many grey feathers littering the ground, as if someone had plucked a bird right there.
The throne is right there! In one piece!
Sofia tried to advance, but Pareth blocked the path with an extended arm.
Oh fuck.
She had been so excited to finally get her subclass’s second skill that she had completely failed to see the distorted human face in the bark. But it had certainly seen them. What could this entity be capable of?
There was a moment of Silence, Sofia thought about attacking but knew she couldn’t. If the tree was the thing maintaining the fake world, then trying to kill it was as good as trampling on her promise to Remia.
I don’t know if it’ll help but I do have my unlife runes so…
Sofia pushed down Pareth’s arm. “All of you stay here.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Sof.”
“Not really,” Sofia answered, before taking a few steps forward, truly entering the throne room.
She carefully monitored the tree’s face and the mana movements in the air, ready to react at the slightest hint of something going wrong.
The tree’s eyes were made of darker bark, they followed Sofia as she walked toward the throne. When Sofia walked too close, the face started to contort. She took a step back, and the face relaxed.
Trying to walk around the throne was the same.
I just need to see the back… Should I use a vision token?
Sofia sighed, “Can you hear me?” she asked the face of the tree, “Do you understand me?”
The face of bark still looked at her, with no change in its expression.
Maybe…
Sofia repeated the same things in Draconic.
The tree’s eyes slowly narrowed. And its mouth opened. With an extremely deep voice, it started slowly answering in the draconic language.
“Serdross… Have you come back?” it asked.
“I am not Serdross,” Sofia answered.
Serdross is dead…
“Not… Then you must leave. Before I forget. Before, your face… You must leave,” the tree told Sofia, its voice oozing with dread.
“I will leave. I just need to see the back of the throne first,” Sofia told the tree.
“You… Can’t. I will not let you,” it slowly answered, and Sofia could feel the hostility in its voice. She could feel the room’s mana move in strange ways around her. But it was not an attack yet. She carefully considered what to say next.
“Why not? Do you remember Nex? You must have let him see it.”
“Nex… Remember, I do not. But perhaps, like the faces… Forgotten.”
Forgotten faces? Is that… Is that a way to explain why the light world’s faces are all blurry?
Wait… The feathers on the ground, could they…
Sofia took a few steps back, to grab one of the numerous feathers from the ground. Sofia wiped off the dust. It’s not gray! It’s black!
The links were immediately drawn in Sofia’s head, helping her understand a fundamental rule of the light world: it was all following Izzaro’s memory. These feathers, black feathers like a crow’s, covered in skin dust, were likely all coming from a single person, the avian lady they had randomly met earlier on the moon, one of Nex’s ancient companions.
She was the sole person whose face was not blurry in the light world, and the reason was simple: she visited Izzaro often, as shown by the feathers. Often enough for him to remember her face.
That might also explain why everyone’s memory gets rest in the light world, they live tethered to the tree… And it’s much easier to remember the same eight days again and again than to let everyone live an endless life. If the tethered’s memories are all dependent on Izzaro’s memory, he could only remember so much before reaching saturation.
It was only different for us because we’re not tethered. But once you become one, like the avian lady, you get stuck in the loop.
With the number of feathers here… She must have come here and ‘discovered’ Izzaro hundreds of times…
“Do you know who these feathers are from?” Sofia asked, holding up one of the feathers.
“That… I do not.”
Uh… Was I wrong? Ah, whatever…
“Why can I not look at the back of the throne?” Sofia asked next.
“Watch… Me,” the face in the bark answered. “I am the result. We cannot… Create paradise.”
Create paradise? He became a tree by trying to create paradise? Is that what the spell does? The spell is the light world?
Nex saw it… IT’S FAKE WORLDS!
THE SPELL IS JUST THAT!
OF COURSE THERE WAS A FAKE WORLD LIKE THE TRIALS!!!
This must be what they used to create the trials!
Ahahah! Did I do all this just to get one of Joah’s class skills?
The others were starting to worry as they watched Sofia silently cackle to herself, but she quickly regained her seriousness.
“I still want to see it,” Sofia told the tree, “If the queen’s descendants were here, would you let them see?”
“You cannot see… Our queen… No heir…”
That much was obvious… It seems like he won’t attack me as long as I don’t force things, but just to make sure… Sofia shook her staff, ringing Ormoncleth’s bell.
The tree’s face contorted, its eyes fixating the bell, “This… Why? How? Our Queen’s voice…”
He heard it… Not an enemy, then. The queen’s voice, huh?
“Do you believe I am the heir now?” Sofia asked next.
“My Queen…” the tree face mumbled, “I can never forget…”
With these words, the face in the bark relaxed, and its eyes slowly closed.
Oh fuck, did it die?
I guess not, the mana in the tree is still too stable. It must have fallen asleep… All thanks to Ormoncleth’s bell…
From the side, Alith was pointing madly at the throne, pressing Sofia to hurry up.
Yes, yes.
Finally Sofia laid her eyes on the back of Queen Esprizia Ormoncleth’s throne.
As expected, there was a mind-numbingly complex spell schematic carved on the back, but not only that, it came with an inscription at the top. One written in the old human language, no less, and so pristine in condition that one could swear it had just been carved through the stone.
‘My fair lady, I send unto thee this throne, for I have received the sorrowful tidings. It appears these artificial bounds were akin to a child’s ploy in the end; was it not vain of us brothers to believe we might so easily elude it?
Yet still, we thank thee for indulging our folly for so long. As was convened, let us leave here a fragment of this fleeting flesh’s transient wisdom, that our future marked ones might still benefit from this utter farce. I shall depart first, as thy return demands a cause.
I yearn for thy warm presence to unite us once more. Sincerely, Y.’
This was then followed by a much shorter message, in the common language.
‘For my marks, I leave here the first of four mirrors, a world free from the clutches of death: the [Paradise Toybox]’
Comments
Mornn
I wouldn't say it does it 'easily' but it does manage without the proper essence :p
OmniGlitcher
Well, I called the fake world being the trial magic, though I'm surprised the system incorporates Deep magic that easily. I'm assuming this is Yvraveteth's skill then. Mirrors is an interesting word choice. Still not sure how the light world relates to the world Sofia was trapped in, or how tethered are made though.
Tejing
Well, that puts some interesting perspective on things. Seems like the Lords of the lost epoch really were the same Lords Sofia knows now. They were just trying out being in normal bodies for a bit. Whatever they hoped to achieve that way clearly didn't work, though. The question is, why were there 11 of them in that era, not 4? It's too bad it's not Aphenoreth's skill. She won't be able to use it until she defeats Scripture. Still, I'm betting it'll be pretty awesome once it's powered properly by Yvraveteth's essence. I wonder why it calls this a "mirror"? Correction: why everyone’s memory gets rest in the light world rest -> reset
Chance Rose
That could be actually. Maybe Time was helping them to keep stuff contained to a certain timescale and Ed killed him for it. Im not sure though cause Ed also talked about getting a marked one.
Chance Rose
I don't recall the chapter it was in, but it was when Sof was in the deep. She was talking to orator who told her that himself, Orm, and Aphenoreth didn't like what they had to do for all of eternity essentially. Im guessing Ed as well since he talked about marked ones and was known about in the light world too. Then he eluded to Sof helping them be free of the responsibility.
April
How did you get that they were escaping their responsibility? I completely missed that.
E
So Ormoncleth descended to this moon to chill as a physical being, killed the ruling God, and said "mine now." Orator has a blurry face because... he has been forgotten by this reality? Huh? What power/force has the ability to ruin the vacation period of the Lords? Being a Lord of the Deep seems like a shitty job. "Sorrowful tidings" is probably a code phrase between coworkers to describe "Ed the Annihilator of Fun"
Mrluigi1111111
This has been an extremely fun to read arc.
Cyclone001
The annihilator is uncle Ed, Orator is Y. Why I said it doesn't make sense is I don't see why Orator would write such a cryptic message considering the Lords seem pretty much all powerful and he could just give the message in person, and it's too cryptic for marked ones. As for what destroyed the world, we know it was destroyed once already by Sundial II. But that's not something that strikes me as on a 30k year cycle.
Wensber
The hero option might not work, but Bookie could try eating the corpse. Just need to figure out how to get her soul in there like how old Pestle was.
KazukiNero
Wonder if this is the when time died, so now the lords are forced to return to keep everything working.
Matt Grayson
@Mornn The letter at the end makes it much clear, once one understands who is writing and to whom.
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Chance Rose
Hell yeah
Mornn
I mean... With gluttony being a thing, you now know that Gods dying leaves behind some... Nasty stuff. Now imagine if a Lord...
Mornn
Oh lol, yeah, well about that... Let's just say the admins found a way :)
Ceasar Salas
Oh! Thanks for the info, that does make a lot of sense! But I actually meant to say Trial towers back on the home world. I kinda forgot about the obelisks while writing since Izzaro and the message caught so much of my attention hahaha
Mornn
It's not something you've never heard about is all I will say :D
Mornn
I don't know if I will explain the obelisk towers ever so : (spoiler) The towers are relays, using parts of the queen's eternally bleeding body to grows offshots of Izzaro's tree form :)
Mornn
🎯
Emily Gurnavage
I gotta agree with Morn that the Y is obvious with the context that its whichever Deep Lord whose name starts with Y. You said Orator, although I thought the Y one was The Destroyer, but either way - the message is totes from a Lord. The "it", both from context and Morn's teeny hint, im fairly certain is either the Ebb or whatever the true root cause of that civilizations destruction was which im still not super sure on. Seems like it all came from the Queen's "death", but idk why her death caused that illness or her body to act how it did.
Chance Rose
And are the sorrowful tidings maybe the phaiged returning or something? The ebb? Who knows.
Mornn
@Matt Grayson I wouldn't be surprised if reading it all in one go helps things be clearer yes, but it's also my job to make sure the book is understandable so I'm not beyond criticism if it's truly starting to be too hard to put together For the lords, the letter at the end of this chapter should clear most of it: their passage on Veliadren as 'fleeting flesh' (make believe humans), was them trying something new to elude something or someone, and since it didn't work, they left, while leaving behind the spells Sofia is looking for for her secondary class. This is what the letter is all about. @Daemion Yeah lots of unknown, that's what I wanted but maybe I was a bit heavy-handed on the lovecraftian/junji-ito inspiration, which usually gets no resolution or explanation at all I'll see if I make a summary at the end to close some loose ends but I also don't want to completely kill all the mystery, especially when it comes to the deep itself. But yeah looking at your understanding of the plot, you've mostly got it honestly, you can read John Grizzly's comment above and reread Y's letter at the end of this chapter to try get a clearer picture but the basics are mostly there. What you don't get are the more unexplained things which can in large parts be attributed to 'deep fuckery' and this I think is where keeping some msytery is fine, as I said above.
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! I wonder what the sorrowful tidings were. My guess is the ebb, beings so powerful can’t possibly exist in the physical plane for so long if even the recessed can’t. Considering the deep is “farther” than the recessed plane. I have a feeling this moon is the result of casting the Paradise spell without being a marked one or having some kind of proper medium to cast it. Which leads to the next question, how do the towers emulate the spell? Are their foundations formed using something from the Deep? Like an anchor for the spell?
Chance Rose
Oh okay orator was the one who left the message . I dont remember how to spell it, but his name started with Y yzerteth or something of the sort. And this is a huge drop. So these forms they took on this moon were not their real forms but essentially meat mechs they were using to get out of their responsibility as the lord's like they said they wanted to. It didn't work out because of whatever these sorrows are, and they left stuff for those they marked later. And Y is looking forward to Orm being back because he links all the lord's and everything as the regulator. That's what I'm getting at least.
Mornn
Whatever is turning everyone into shimmering crawlies maybe? :)
Mornn
All hero slots have been taken and for a while :p Pareth - Alith - Bookie - Ihuarah is 4/4
John Grizzly
Ah, I did a false equivalence then. Thought the corpse had to be either remia or queen. Flew over my head that it could just be a different other gods corpse lol.
Daemion
The issue is, as I have pointed out previously, that there are too many unknowns at once. You, as the author, have a very different perspective but to the readers this is just a bunch of questions and each time one seems to get answered, new questions arise. I mean, now, ~30 chapters later, it is starting to make sense. But for most of the time, my reaction after reading a chapter was, "Huh. Okay. Let's hope the next one explains it." We certainly have theories about what's going on but it's like completing a puzzle where half the pieces are missing. I'd really appreciate a summary somewhere at the end, maybe when Sofia explains everything to dragon grandma? As a reference, my understanding of the plot is this: About 30k years ago, before the Lost Epoch, ancient humans built a society on this moon/planet. They were ruled over by human versions of the Lords. 10 of them (or was it 12?), instead of the known four. Then the Queen "died" under mysterious circumstances and her closest servants developed an infection with an early version of the Ebb. Izzaro, a dragon, then experimented with the Queen's blood and the Ebb. This resulted in the surface of the planet being consumed. He tried to save the people by creating a fake world, with him as the center. This turned him into a tree and everyone connected to it into a Tethered. They exist in a timeloop within that fake world and can never escape even if they were aware of it, because their bodies in the real world are gone. Probably through the Ebb/blood combo? At some point in time, the admins and some dragons with their parties tried to explore the place and undo the damage, but they failed. Some died, some got trapped. The rest declared the entire celestial body as a danger zone and forbade anyone from entering. I still don't know why creatures of the Deep are present if the Lords removed themselves ages ago. I still don't know why the Queen's corpse is generating lakes of blood, I still don't know where the Ebb comes from... because it clearly predates the Izzaro-Tree who now grows the fruits. I still don't know what's up with the lighthouses or why the light shone on people moves them into the fake world even though they aren't tethered. I still don't know how or why the Lords tried to be part of a human civilisation. I also feel I've gotten a few things wrong and that doesn't help my understanding.
Mornn
Remia's body is out there yes, but the place the ring showed is somewhere else, there's another dead god in the city, basically, it has been there since before the light world, and it still is.
Mornn
@John Grizzly basically has it, if you want more details (warning: spoilers, but it's the end of the arc so whatever) : 1-The city's fake world is separate from the overall moon's light world because it's within the aura of Izzaro (the tree) so the people within don't need to be connected by tethers, and end up as deep creatures instead. 2-The reason why the spell is so fucky is very simple and can be understood by looking at how [singularity edict] works: Izzaro does not have 'Y's essence, therefore cannot fuel his spell properly. 3-if you're curious about the dust sprites at the beginning of the arc, they are people (tethered) who have been abandonned, as Izzaro slowly loses power, and the people furthest from him get disconnected. Without a tether they slowly disappear, becoming more dust.
ArtTheGreat
I wonder if the other skills will have notes from the lords accompanying them as well.
Matt Grayson
I keep waiting for this dragon and the deceased Lord of Time to be connected. Probably dead wrong...
Tom Asciola
So I wonder what's lurking in Queen's Rest in the real world these days?
Tsorov
Don't be too worried. Yes, not all things make sense right now, but we are getting more and more infos now, and we can already spy the solution but it always escapes our grasp. As a proper Mysterie Arc should be. Would be bprong if all the answers could be found in the beginning
John Grizzly
I mean true. Since she was supposedly immortal and all. I forget who is the god that died here...remix? Her body is dead right but her spirit lives/locked. The queen is a lorde originally but found a way to try and live as a mortal and then invited her "brothers"/other lordes to join the fun while it last.....but the queen is like disembodied organs in the organic slush inside the coffin iirc....her "dying" is prolly her "spirit" abandoning thr body to return to the lords realm...fun food for thought
Matt Grayson
Oh! No, it is solely my own stupidity. No criticism intended - your work is magnificent. My major confusion is the role of the Lords' names. I thought, going in, that they were truly timeless forces of nature. Am I to perceive them as merely entities from this planet over the past 100 millennia? Or are their names being used in this arc for some dramatic purpose? The Gods are good old-fashioned anthropomorphic (with a lot of extra eyes and tentacles) local constructs - dependent on the thoughts and emotions of living entities. The Lords appearances as comprehensible beings seemed a necessary reduction of their true natures. How is Gravity supposed to dress? Or the notion of Cause and Effect? It's entirely possible that going from binge reading to reading releases as they happen is to blame for my lack of comprehension. I'll go back and reread the past 50 chapters or so.
Tsorov
I just had a thought. Sofia wants to free Remia, and she will get to the gods corpse. I assume it is Remias corpse. Now, Sofia is a saintomancer, the definiton of bringing the dead back to (fake) life. And she still has one hero slot open, right? Corps + wayward soul + empty slot = new hero! What better hero than a god incarnated into immortal flesh could there be?
BOT
I think this chapter clears up most of what’s going on, there are a lot of assumptions going on but that’s not necessarily a bad thing
John Grizzly
Light/dark world. Dark world is the real current moon state. The light world seems to be due to the dragon chancellor efforts to "save" the kingdom/people. It is made using the skill we just found out now, but it is prolly incomplete for some reason, therefore why it "failed". The light world manifests for non tethered through the use of the "light fruits" which has a connection to the lords realm as it is based on their spell. The looping state is because dragon memory can only hold so much. 🤷 that's the basic understanding I have
Mornn
The queen was never human :)
Mornn
Well, the 'it' in question is not obvious but it's also not new is all I'm gonna say on this part. As for who wrote the message though, it is pretty obvious. They say 'our marked ones', so it's 100% one of the lords...
Cyclone001
I think I have a new least favorite word: "it". The message was already too vague without such words. I am confused. And who signed it "Y." The only name that comes to mind is Orator, but I don't see how that makes sense.
Mornn
(;° ロ°) Really? I don't even know what to say to that... It is a mystery/horror arc so it was certainly meant to be a bit cryptic but from there to say nothing makes sense... You got me worried
JHD
Thanks for the chapter.
Matt Grayson
I am so envious of those who can follow this arc and draw reasonable conclusions. I was fine until the light/dark worlds. Nothing since has made any sense. I hope there is an "explain it to five-year-olds" synopsis at some point.
John Grizzly
Yoooo nice. So it was the lords then. The real lords. The human bodies were and attempt at living mortal lives. Mb the ebb is actually a backlash/consequence at the attempt at side stepping these supposed bonds. Mb the queen was originally just human, but as thanks allowed to transcend?
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
