Chapter 1222: Balance Upheld

Chapter 1222: Balance Upheld

The simple taunts wouldn't normally have fazed Zac in the slightest, even with the great pressure he was under. However, the entity's words were laced with hidden barbs of malevolence. The completely foreign magic tried to form seeds of artificial Heart Demons while fomenting a schism in his mind. Each attack held the potential for corruption and possession.

The subtle attack would have posed a real threat if the circumstances were different. The entity was nowhere near as carefree as it wanted to appear. It had fused with the [Epiclesis Bell] to survive under a hostile sky, and damaging the bell meant damaging the creature. With the heretical bell almost completely gone, the entity was already on its last legs. The Heavens were adding insult to injury, erasing its existence layer by layer.

The bell's isolating properties were almost gone, too weak to even sever the link with Zac's other half. Sensing his location and the differences in time flow indicated he'd been dragged into an illusion rather than subspace. The System's protection remained around his real body, and only a fraction of the evil energies managed to pass through the lightning cage.

A wave of nothingness spread through the darkness, causing the evil domain to turn sluggish. Zac's answer to the entity was a call to war, which began by activating [Void Zone]. The bloodline talent was immediately followed by launching a third of his skills using [Force of the Void]. He was holding nothing back, using his Void Emperor bloodline to its fullest.

A miasmic shroud reeking of antiquity poured into the bell, and the darkness of the Abyss fought for supremacy through [Deathmark]. The two domains reached beyond his nullification sphere, while [Indomitable] and [Profane Exponents] erected new layers of defenses within. Zac also activated three rings on his fingers, causing a significant chunk of his core's Miasma to be drained.Ne/w novel chapters are p/u/blished on no/vel(/bin(.)c/o/m

Finally, Zac threw out a pitch-back crystal, which shattered and unleashed a sea of Miasma and Death-attuned Mental Energy. Zac was throwing everything at the oppressive darkness, and it was nowhere near enough to put him on even ground with the heretical creature. The entity's imminent demise didn't change the fact it was an existence as old as the System. Zac's actions were only enough to briefly contest its domain.

Soul Sense and scouting rings pierced the curtain, scanning every corner of the crumbling bell. Zac almost cried with relief upon sensing the familiar spiritual fluctuations. He disappeared in a puff of Abyssal haze, using [Abyssal Drive] to follow the signal to Vilari's location. She didn't react to his sudden appearance.

Vilari was caught in a trance-like state, her soul almost fully drained to combat an onslaught of darkness. Scanning her insides made Zac reel. Everything, from her organs to her pathways, was covered in a murky patina of evil. Her situation was awfully similar to Zac's after being dragged to the tapestries of Oblivion and Creation. She had been forced to retreat over and over and was left defending the final bastion of her being with the last of her strength.

"You came," Vilari smiled, her eyes briefly opening.

"Of course. Always," Zac said, knowing she'd already fallen unconscious again.

Zac forcibly calmed down, recapturing the turbulent ball of Chaos in his chest that had momentarily slipped out of his grasp upon seeing Vilari's plight. Calming down also let him grasp the situation more clearly. The entity's influence was still limited to a surface infiltration. The patina hadn't seeped into the depths of Vilari's cells, soul, or Cosmic Core. The attack must have started recently, considering how quickly Vilari was losing ground.

The situation was bad but not irredeemable, though the System didn't share his outlook. The lightning cage buckled when he drew closer, intent to strike down Vilari like she was part of the invasion of foreign Dao. Zac was infuriated and immediately absorbed a number of Chaos Motes to mark his conviction, almost buckling under the pain it caused.

"If you kill her, I won't just keep the Chaos for myself," Zac growled. "I'll tear down the Peak of Chaos with my own two hands."

'How fierce,' the entity laughed. 'I pray you won't come to regret your choice.'

Zac kept ignoring the voice, afraid that entertaining its antics was part of its unfamiliar skill. He reached forward, gingerly grasping Vilari's hand when the lightning cage parted. Zac quickly dragged her to his side, his mind screaming of immediate danger.

A final, cackling laugh shook Zac to his very core, just before the darkness shattered in an explosion that ruptured Zac's eardrums. The entity had chosen to detonate itself and the bell in a final act of joyful sacrifice. Zac desperately held on, shielding Vilari's unmoving body in a tight embrace. The protective band of lightning crumbled, and the Void couldn't withstand the incoming onslaught.

Just as they were about to be swallowed, a steely sun bloomed with Zac and Vilari in the middle. A million eyes opened and closed across its surface, their chaotic stares eroding the wave of madness before they could reach. Zac only managed to see the twisted beauty and mad grandeur of his chaos-infused [Eye of Desolation] for a brief moment before the cage shattered. Thankfully, that brief resistance was enough for another cage of golden lightning to appear.

It wasn't just the entity that had shattered the protective bands and destabilized Zac's skill. It was helped by a streak of dark red, taking up the vanguard of an army of angry black lightning bolts filled with erasure. The Tribulation Lightning targeting his Draugr body had finally caught up when his human side had almost finished dealing with his half.

There was no time to weigh the risks. Zac only saw the solution he sought hidden within the tribulation bearing down on him. Zac lifted the Mentalist at the last moment, seemingly using her as a shield while flooding her with Void and Chaos. A furious clap of thunder answered, and the lightning grew in intensity by half. Vilari had been deemed interfering with the tribulation, increasing the punishment for them both.

Zac's heart hammered with worry, but it was the best solution he could think of. He'd planned on the System cleansing her as part of their trade, but its limit was letting her live while she remained steeped in sin. Sendor's warning had come back to haunt him, and it was up to him to find a solution.

It wasn't a problem his bloodline could solve. [Void Zone] and [Void Mountain] couldn't discern friend from foe, and Vilari would die from having her Daos suppressed long before Zac could strangle the stubborn energy.

The Chaos Energy was a possible fallback, but it was a last-ditch solution if all else failed. He could barely control it within his body. If he infused Vilari, there was no way to tell what would happen. The most suitable candidate was the black lightning, which was exceptionally efficient at rooting out the entity's aura. However, it was too overbearing, to the point it erased pieces of his body after lightly grazing him.

But what if it were diluted by tribulation lightning? It was still pushing the boundaries of what Vilari could be expected to endure, but it gave her a shot at survival. Any wounds or missing limbs could be fixed later with some of his leftover Creation Energy.

One held a small vial of purple liquid that made Zac's Soul Cores shudder with hunger. The other was a pill covered in dense engravings. Zac placed the pill in Vilari's mouth and gently guided its medicinal energies to the most damaged sections of her body. Meanwhile, his human side opened her eyes, dripped two drops of the purple liquid into each eye, and used the Branch of Pale Seal to guide it into her Soul Aperture.

The treasures were the top-tier elixirs he'd prepared for Vilari. It was almost a given she'd be in a bad state after a year of captivity, and a plethora of treasures and arrays had already been prepared. Zac looked for a spark of consciousness in her eyes but soon shook his head in defeat. A proper reunion would have to wait.

"Please help her," Zac said, this time not talking to the System.

He activated the Yphelion's Teleportation Array to place her in the medical ward.

"I'll do what I can," Catheya assured from the other side as she hurried to Vilari's side.

Catheya didn't have much knowledge of medicine, but the doctors were all unconscious or dead. Catheya could also seal Vilari in ice in case she noticed something was wrong. At least it wouldn't be a repeat of Alea's situation. Vilari's soul was only damaged and overtaxed, but it had shown no hint of collapse. Zac's real worry was whether the experience had damaged her in a less visible way.

A stabbing pain brought Zac back to the present. The tribulation had come and gone without causing any real problems. The issue was the Glimpses of Chaos. He'd held onto them far longer than ever before, even using skills with them as fuel. Enduring the streaks of annihilation damaged his pathways, and his soul was approaching dangerous levels after forcibly containing the glimpses for so long.

It was time to let go. The jungle around the Yphelion collapsed as Zac finally lost control over the skill. The System didn't make a move.

"Get us out of here, and we're even," Zac said with a hoarse voice.

The answer came in the form of a lighting pillar hundreds of meters wide, large enough to consume him and the Yphelion whole. Zac's eyes were wide with alarm, his heart suddenly full of horror and doubt. The System couldn't be done with him after he'd released the Flawed Authority, right? What about its schemes for his bloodline to mature?

"You—!"

Zac's furious roar was cut short when he realized the System hadn't actually decided to smite him. The pillar of lightning was painful, but not like the black eradication. The Heavenly lightning almost felt gentle as it swept through his body, seemingly performing a final check. The same thing was happening to his crew and even the Yphelion.

The next moment, they were back in the deadzone, only an hour's distance from their original position, judging by the immense cloud of darkness. There was still black lightning all around, but it seemed to avoid the Yphelion after it had been annealed by the System. It didn't appear to be a temporary protection, either.

Zac looked down at his vessel, barely recognizing it. It had received a complete overhaul by the pillar of lightning. The basic features were still there, though elevated, following concepts far beyond Zac's comprehension. It couldn't even be considered a Creator Vessel any longer. It felt more like a Natural Treasure born from the cosmos.

Uncovering its transformation would have to wait. Zac teleported into an empty corridor and instructed the Yphelion to set off, using every method in its arsenal to increase its speed. The black lightning had become a protective cover, and they needed to use it to cover as much ground as possible before any outside parties caught up.

Zac's human form disappeared in a puff of spatial energy, having returned to the Shrine of Kanba.

'You lunatic!' a deflated Esmeralda signed inside.

The toad was so exhausted that she had turned grey, and the vats on her back were completely empty. Protecting the shrine had taken its toll, even with Zac doing his best to shield it.

"I'm sorry," Zac sighed. "You saw how it was outside. Things far exceeded my expectations."

'Isn't that always the case with you?' Esmeralda said with a wronged expression.

"Well," Zac coughed. "At least it's over now."

'Not quite,' Esmeralda said, her eyes serious. 'I can't help you.'

"Don't worry; I can handle it," Zac said with a determined expression. "It's time Kator and I had a heart-to-heart."