278. Paths Onward

Two weeks later.

After sorting out the matters of Harvest’s management with Kara’s help, Rakna went on to work with Old Wang as to what kind of applications the Prima Shards could be used in smithing, while Gaelius and Evelyn cooperated for both the alchemy and scientific side of the project.

At the same time, he brought the guild to climb Plateaus, as well as to hunt higher leveled monsters in order to increase their attributes with The Harvester. Additionally, thanks to the Path Skill of Nyx, they were able to do it even faster. As such, all of them had reached level 100 with all of their attributes sitting at a minimum of 90.

The only reason they hadn’t gone higher was simply that The Harvester had seemingly a limit for the way it was being exploited. A limit that would potentially be exponentially higher as they go through their Ascents.

This all brings us to the present. After triggering their First Ascents, everyone initiated their Main Path Quests, which they had been pushing off until they maximized their attributes.

* * *

Pronos opened his eyes and was surprised to find himself deep underwater, almost enough for a complete lack of light from the surface. Without wasting time, a System window popped up right after.

❮ ◈ ❯

Simulation Transfer Complete.

Path Quest Initiated; The Hydra of Legend.

The Host Pet’s form and abilities have been fixed at their strongest state for the duration of the Quest. Your role will be explained to you by the Scenario. You have several possible goals and clearing conditions. Feel free to do whatever you fancy.

❮ ◈ ❯

The not-so-little guy read the description and remembered Rakna telling him about very similar conditions. He looked around in the empty depths and after a moment of consideration, he chose to swim to the surface.

But before doing so, he used his Call of Fangs to create small serpents and scout the ocean. Then after close to ten minutes, he peeked one of his heads out of the water. The first thing he noticed was that he was far from land; he couldn’t see a coastline anywhere.

But one thing he spotted was a boat. Pronos squinted his eyes; he could sense something oddly yummy inside. He thought about it and ultimately came to the conclusion that since this was a Simulation, it wasn’t a problem to attack that boat, right?

As such, his pupils expanded into Infinity signs. After reaching Lvl.100, like everyone else, Pronos had been prompted to choose a Sub-Path. The one he had selected had originated from the very skill he had evolved into a Nirvana Skill just before. It was called Master of Statues.

It had given him the specialized Affinity, Statue Magic, and a Path Skill that allowed him to control the bodies of people he turned into stone like puppets. With the guidance of both Rakna and Marie, he had developed strategies that synergized with it.

One of them was this one; Pronos channeled his mana into his mouths and spat out an ash-colored poison mist. It swallowed the boat and the area around, and the effects instantly began to show.

Some parts of the wood and sails turned into stone and the boat slowed down considerably. This was the product of a Union Magic, Poisonous Stone. The specific spell was called Petra Powder; it attacked both living and nonliving things and petrified them.

Pronos hissed and dived underwater again, swimming toward the boat. However, there was one thing he hadn’t noticed, as well as something he most likely wouldn’t have understood; the name of the ship carved on the sides of the hull.

In gold, the words ‘The Argo’ were written.

* * *

“Hm, I wonder what this is about,” Flavia asked herself as she sat in a small creepy hut, filled with all sorts of jarred ingredients. There was even a cauldron boiling some purple mixture with green flames coming out of it.

❮ ◈ ❯

Simulation Transfer Complete.

Path Quest Initiated; Witch’s Craft.

Some of the Host’s abilities have been limited or sealed for the duration of the Quest. Your role will be explained to you by the Scenario. You have several possible goals and clearing conditions. Feel free to do whatever you fancy.

❮ ◈ ❯

“{Hmph, if you ask me, you’ll get your answer once the owner of this place returns,}” Cuniya, who had taken to talking on her own accord, commented.

“Even if you say that, should I really wait, or run before that happens?” Flavia responded and right on cue, as if to answer her, the door of the hut squeaked open and a hooded figure entered. After closing the door, they lowered their hood to reveal a wrinkly and old woman.

She walked to the cauldron and stirred it with a giant spoon before nodding. Then she looked at the other person in the room who was gawking at her. “How long are you planning to stand there like a fool? Come here already. Didn’t you want to learn sorcery?”

Flavia’s mind overclocked to analyze the situation and quickly composed herself. It seemed that this Simulation had taken her Sub-Path of Sorceress as the main theme. “Y-yes… I will be in your care,” she said and set out to follow the old woman’s instructions.

* * *

“…what kind of shit is this?” Allan mumbled to himself as he stood in the middle of a moonlit street that strikingly reminded him of old London.

❮ ◈ ❯

Simulation Transfer Complete.

Path Quest Initiated; Vampire Hunter.

The Host’s abilities haven’t been limited but certain traits may have been altered. Your role will be explained to you by the Scenario. You have several possible goals and clearing conditions. Feel free to do whatever you fancy.

❮ ◈ ❯

“Vampire Hunter? What is this? Aren’t you taking the ‘Abyss Monk’ a bit too literally? I don’t have holy scriptures to read, you know?” He grumbled under his breath whilst tightening his gloves. He looked around and slowly began to walk.

Everything was terribly quiet and he could hear the wind more than the sound of his steps. There was something else that gave him a hint of what his role was in his scenario. He had appeared in this city with a different outfit; a black trench coat, a tool belt, and a wide leather hat that was just enough to cover his eyes if he angled it slightly low.

“That’s definitely the stereotypical look, huh?” He said as he saw a gun holstered under his coat as well as water vials. “Tch, who the fuck do you think I am? I’m a Pugilist, not a brooding lonesome hunter,” he jested.

The Sub-Path he had picked for himself was called Spiritual Pugilist. The reason for such a path to be offered to him was half obvious, but the ‘spiritual’ part of it was mainly because he was the only one amongst the group that had managed to awaken Intent like Rakna. To be exact, Fist Intent; a rather difficult one. It was the only thing he had been able to proudly say he was more talented at than his childhood friend.

As Allan was pondering what he should do, if perhaps he had to spend his nights looking for traces of bloodsuckers, he heard something coming from an alleyway. At that moment, he didn’t notice that his hearing was far sharper than it should be.

Without thinking, he headed to the source of the noise and caught the tail of a cat that jumped off from the alleyway into the street. Allan followed it with his eyes and then they widened when he saw the animal jump in the arms of a little girl with red eyes and golden hair.

‘Where?’ The blond thought to himself with a scowl. ‘Where did this girl come from? She wasn’t here an instant ago, I’m sure of it.’

“Mister,” the child’s voice jolted him. “Are you not going to the banquet?”

“The… banquet?”

She tilted her head in confusion before coming to a conclusion, “Oh! Are you new to the city? Come follow me! I can show you!” She said cheerily and right before she fully turned around, she smiled and displayed two noticeable fangs.

Allan froze on the spot as the girl skipped away toward the ‘banquet’. ‘Is she…? Then what does she mean by banquet? Why did she invite me? It feels like I’m missing… some…’ He shuddered when he glanced at the window of a house next to him. ‘…thing…’ 

The glass was blank. He was standing as close as he could be, the moonlight was more than enough to give minimal lighting, but it was still blank. And it was then that he realized. ‘How can I see so well? How did I hear that sound? Why can I smell something sweet coming from the direction that girl went to?’ The picture began to form in his mind.

“Hm? Mister! Are you okay?” The little girl called from afar, hugging her cat.

Allan raised an eyebrow and looked up in time to see a swarm of bats fly over the buildings. He breathed in and walked toward the little girl, passing in front of the windows… that did not show either his or the child’s reflections.

“I guess it’s time… I look at the Abyss,” he muttered to himself, following the young girl as she tip-toed around him whilst playing with her cat. But her grin… felt dreadful.

* * *

“This is… interesting,” Marie commented as she read a document on an electronic tablet. She was currently riding a limousine for her scenario's storyline. To be specific, she was moving under an order; a kill order. Investigation, sabotage, and assassination; these were her instructions.

She glanced at the System window floating in the corner of her vision.

❮ ◈ ❯

Simulation Transfer Complete.

Path Quest Initiated; A Serpent in Diva’s Clothing.

The Host’s abilities haven’t been altered. Your role will be explained to you by the Scenario. You have several possible goals and clearing conditions. Feel free to do whatever you fancy.

❮ ◈ ❯

Her Sub-Path was called Diva of Concord. The total opposite of her Path; Serpent of Discord. It was quite an ironic combination and she couldn’t deny that it was one of the reasons she selected it.

The abilities it had given were a maxed-out proficiency with musical instruments, as well as a skill that allowed her to produce various magical feats depending on the songs she played. 

Every little detail impacted the result; notes, instruments, lyrics, tones, and genres. This Path Skill also came with a Sub-Skill capable of conjuring instruments for her needs. Shortly said, it was an ability with endless possibilities.

One of the most basic kinds of songs she had learned to play were Death Lullabies. The longer they were listened to, the higher the chance for the targeted listeners to get hurt or die altogether.

‘I suppose this is why the scenario made me a pianist for a party,’ Marie thought. 

She had targets to gather information on. As long as she played a song capable of inducing people to obey her every request, she could easily do it.

When the limousine arrived at its destination, the driver opened the door for her and she stepped out. She was wearing a high-low red dress and her beauty made waves among the people waiting to enter the party hall.

She smiled warmly to make an impression and elegantly walked down the VIP path. Inwardly, she smirked as snakes were already being created under her sleeves. When she entered the building, she stealthily let them crawl up the walls and ceilings. 

And as she approached the piano on the stage, she prepared to give her audience a performance they would never forget.

* * *

A giant fist landed on a transparent barrier and erupted into a geyser of flames and lava. The caster at the origin of the barrier yelped and was sent off flying from the rebound. But before she crashed on the magmatic ground of the hell-like landscape that surrounded her, she deployed a pair of bat wings and stabilized herself.

“This…” She huffed. “Isn’t fair…”

“Hahahaha! If you cannot beat me, how can you be our Priestess?” Her opponent hollered with a big grin. He was close to six meters tall and wielded a large hammer around like it was a toy. His upper body was bare, his skin like charcoal, and with fire-like tattoos on the shoulders.

His lower body was covered by a shredded but mystical-looking garb and his feet looked like the talons of a dragon. He had several pairs of reddish horns on his head and his eyes were two perfect slits of lava.

❮ ◈ ❯

Simulation Transfer Complete.

Path Quest Initiated; Hell’s Trial – The First.

The Host's abilities have been fixed at their strongest state for the duration of the Quest. Your role will be explained to you by the Scenario.

❮ ◈ ❯

“How does that make sense?!” Evelyn finally complained, healing her bruised body again. “Is it not the role of a Priestess to act on the sidelines?! Why am I fighting you?!”

“Bah! Don’t ask the pointless stuff.”

“That’s not pointless!” She retorted with a helpless tone.

“Haha, well, it’s a tradition, you know? When a Hell Priestess reaches a certain level, in your case that would be Lv.100, they get to make a contract with those like me.”

“You even know about the System…” The succubus whispered. “This is so unfair… Miss Vera told me that her first Simulation was just about closed-door training… not this.”

“Oi, oi, we can’t have that. I can’t give you my allegiance with just some measly training. That also applies for the next Demons you’ll contract to as the Hell Priestess,” he uttered and shouldered his hammer with a smirk. “Prove yourself.”

“How do I even do that…? I can’t beat you…”

“Well, your Hell Flames will indeed not work on me. Your barriers aren’t strong enough to handle my attacks, and don’t get me started on physical strength.”

“…”

“But! Aren’t you forgetting something, girl? You’re the Hell Priestess! Don’t forget that! And what’s the name of that profession you chose, huh? That is also part of your power!”

Evelyn opened her eyes wide. Her Sub-Path; Infernal Transmuter. At the time of the selection, this name and its rarity had instantly stuck out to her. The synergy with her main Path was clear. And it was when she learned it was a Sub-Path linked to transmutation and mage craft such as alchemy that she was sold on it.

‘And… he’s telling me to use my Path Skills against him,’ she thought and exhaled. She brandished the spear Rakna had made for her and the Eion in it glowed together with her will.

“That’s the spirit! Come at me, Priestess! This Belial shall face you!”

Evelyn tightened her grip and covered her body with reactive barrier magic. “[Hell Evocation!]”

* * *

The first thing Nyx thought when she entered her Simulation was that she should have expected it. It was impossible to have normality with a Path like ‘Eternal Night’, after all.

❮ ◈ ❯

Simulation Transfer Complete.

Path Quest Initiated; Queen of The Crepuscule.

The Host’s form and abilities have been altered and augmented to fit the narrative for the duration of the Quest. Your role will be explained to you by the Scenario. You have several possible goals and clearing conditions. Feel free to do whatever you fancy.

❮ ◈ ❯

Her form and abilities had been altered and augmented. She had done some research on her own about Simulations and she knew that these types, that completely transformed a Host’s power, were considered the rarest. Even more so than the one Rakna had experienced.

Nyx sighed and looked at her hands… or should she say claws? When she was transported into the world of the Path Quest, she woke up in a completely new body. She had been perched on top of a dark mountain, with a pair of wings, her own, wrapped around her like a cocoon.

When she unfurled them, the full moon was shining brightly right above her. Then, she looked at herself as the moonlight bounced off her ebony and purple scales.

A dragon. She had become a dragon. And not just any kind; an unknown species called Crepuscule Dragon. It seemingly combined her abilities to control shadows and moon energy into a race. But what probably made the ‘mold’ of it all was her newest Sub-Path.

“Child of Twilight,” she muttered whilst gazing at the foggy horizon. “An Exotic Sub-Path… that is supposedly a legacy from an ancient and forgotten being that the System had collected from across realities. And it chose me as its successor… Were they originally a Dragon?” She wondered. “What made it come to me? My Domain?”

She also couldn’t cross out the possibility of it being a product of Eternal Night. The Kind Demon was sometimes referred to as the strongest Dragon God after all, despite only being part dragon.

“Regardless, I need to figure out the goal of this simulation. Based on the Quest’s title, am I the one that they call Queen of The Crepuscule? In that case, I should have a Kingdom to rule over. Or at the very least… a land to protect,” she squinted her draconic eyes and peered down the mountain she was on. “Or perhaps… this is a place where only I exist. As such, I am its Queen.”

Nyx huffed and purple flames came out of her nostrils. She deployed her wings and jumped off the mountain peak. She plunged and effortlessly handled her first flying experience as if she had done it for years; as if it was ingrained in her body.

After flying for a while and scrutinizing her environment, she knew something was wrong. Every landmark, every tree, rock, or even strand of grass, was being recycled into a new landscape after she had traversed a certain distance. Then, once she looked back at her starting point, she realized that the maximum distance between her and the mountain had ceased increasing.

It was as if she was imprisoned inside a verbatim computer simulation…

“I see…” She muttered, staring at the moon. “It’s not moving. Daytime will never come. This is a cage. Perhaps this is an actual reenactment of events that happened to the owner of this legacy. In which case, my role…” She glanced at the ground below and smiled ominously. “Would be to break out.”

Then, without further ado, Nyx flapped her wings and flew back to the center. She ascended as if she was trying to reach the moon and then flipped back to face the earth.

“Let me show you the might of Moon Magic,” she declared and her wings opened wide, triggering the apparition of a massive magic circle. “Let’s see what my cager has to say about this,” she said and her eyes shone blindingly with the color of the moon. 

“[Pray To the Sun as it Burns You.]”

“[Pray To the Sky as It Collapses on You.]”

“[Pray To the Earth as It Swallows You.]”

“[But Yield to the Moon Illuming You.]”

Nyx’s incantation made the whole realm shake and behind her, a terrifying phenomenon began to take place. The moon was moving, but not laterally. No, it was getting bigger. Closer.

“[Beg To the Heavens.]”

“[Kowtow To the Devil.]”

“[For The Illuminance of The Night Shall Take You Away.]”

At this point, the moon was the sky itself and Nyx spread her arms and wings wide with the grace of a Queen looking over its subjects. “Meteors are old-fashioned,” she joked and her body began to turn into lunar energy, leaving behind these words:

“So, bathe in the light of the moon.”

“[Lunar Fall.]”

The collision that should have caused the utmost destruction occurred silently. When the moon touched the ground, it instantly broke into pieces and revealed that the original one still existed.

But it wasn’t for long. The fragments disintegrated into energy and coalesced. It wasn’t gradual or even fast. It was instantaneous. In one second, the moon descended. In one second, it broke apart. And in one second, the world erupted into a pillar of gray energy. 

In one second… everything was no more.

AhraManyu

This chapter was rather fun to write. This is one of those moments that kinda challenge a writer’s skill I’d say. A lot is going on in this chapter. All of those snippets could literally constitute a complete short-story if I wanted to.

But anyway, about my updates real quick. To give you context, I work from home (not limited to writing) and since I have a rather flexible schedule, I sometimes help my dad with his work and, aside from writing, I'm quite free around this period.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of stuff that I have to help with for the next three to four months. Maybe more. It concerns both my father's job as well as houses that we own. One of them we're gonna move in, another will be expanded and half-loaned. And we also have more stuff to build in my parents' country of origin; where they will move out to this year while I remain in France. And yes, my family owns like... five houses. We're not that well-off but my dad plans for the future a lot and he's smart about it.

So, yeah, I probably won't be able to return to 5 chaps a week any time soon. But that doesn't mean I won't be able to write at all. But be warned that I will be more or less busy depending on the workload for a given week; I have many things to balance right now. Sometimes I'll have several days off in a row or sometimes I'll be swamped for six days straight.

And that's it. Wish me luck. Honestly, it was about time I restarted working out, so I'm not unhappy per se. Life is life and it's fun too. Even if it fucking kills you physically, it's satisfying to build stuff... and destroy stuff. That second one particularly. (And oh right, sorry it wasn't clear enough; I'm talking about manual work like masonry and demolition here.)