Chapter 784: Collapse
Alvod snorted as he sensed the world-ending ferocity of the incoming Godslayer Spikes. The council’s plans were truly sinister. They wanted to collapse the realm right at this critical moment, trying to force a singularity with the Realm Core as a medium for rebirth. Even if the worldly reincarnation failed, it would at least be a vicious strike at him.
It was with mixed emotions he looked out across the Twilight Harbor. Even if it was out of necessity, this little corner of the Frontier had been his home for the better part of his life. Certainly, he had spent most of the time in secluded cultivation or stasis, but he had still watched the fates of those who made the Twilight Harbor their home. Generation after generation of triumphs and setbacks, an endless cycle of ebb and flow.
“All for the Dao,” Alvod sighed, his eyes hardening as he extracted another set of drops from the chalice.
This time, it was not just a few drops, but more than half of his whole reserve. He looked at the sphere of Primal Dao with hunger, but he kept his desire in check as he waved his hands. Eight Purifiers rose into the air, forming a circle around the blob as Alvod started forming Dharmic Seals with blinding speed.
The Tapestry of Twilight shuddered as a storm of meaning entered the purifiers under the control of Alvod, who added his own Dao to finish the process. Alvod quickly threw out the prepared materials at the moment of completion, before spitting out a blob of heavenly fire. The materials mixed with the Primal Dao, and Alvod breathed out in relief when the mixture congealed into a small ball of shimmering paste.
He had researched this method for close to two hundred thousand years, and spent another fifty thousand refining and preparing the materials. All that effort finally paid dividends as the compound exuded the purest of Dao and endless potential, but Alvod knew the most critical part remained. He took a deep breath before he made his move, and the whole realm shuddered as Alvod spat out a mouthful of blood.
The pain was blinding, but Alvod refused to let the darkness consume him as he released a steady breath toward the small ball. In his breath, his severed soul resided, and Alvod didn’t dare as much as blink as he looked at the compound with worry.
The seconds passed after the shroud entered the Dao Paste, and Alvod’s heart hit rock-bottom as nothing happened. Was it a failure? Had he sacrificed too little of his soul? He could spare a little bit more of his mind, but that would worsen his ability to withstand what would come next.
The spears were getting closer as well, and he knew that those foreigners wouldn’t do all the work for him. They needed to weaken him, though not to the point he failed to conjure the Heavenly Descent. They would probably leave two or three spears for him to deal with.
As he agonized over whether to cut off another part of the soul, his dismay turned to elation as the small ball suddenly transformed into a simile of his own face. At the same time, Alvod felt his conception shift, suddenly seeing his surroundings from two directions.
It worked.
While Alvod knew his gambit was a success, he knew it wouldn’t last long. A vortex appeared in front of him, and the small ball immediately shot inside, heading straight for the Realm Core.
“Eat your fill, little spirit,” Alvod smiled, though he felt a pang of loss upon sacrificing so much Primal Dao. That small chalice had almost bankrupted him, and now only a third remained. “A remnant obsession thinking themselves an ancient cultivator. You thought I needed to kill you to achieve my aim? Since you are struggling to hold on, why don’t you show me the comprehension of a vaunted Autarch? A final opportunity to rekindle your lost glory.”
A piercing cry echoed out from the vortex just as it closed, and Alvod snorted as the wheels turned another 90 degrees. The shock of being forcibly infused with all that Dao had made the spirit lose its mind for a moment, allowing his plan to proceed. Of course, that was just an indirect benefit.
The ancient Dao locked in the Realm Core needed to be ignited. If that failed, all else was for naught. Without it to act as a sacrifice, the Heavens wouldn’t descend, making fools out of everyone here. Thankfully, Alvod could already feel the buildup in the heart of the ocean, and the sky outside rumbled with even greater furor. It wasn’t long now.
Satisfied, Alvod’s gaze turned back toward the situation outside. The Godslayer Spears were almost upon him by this point, but he didn’t even feel a ripple in his heart at these siege arrays that each had the power to completely extinguish the life of a peak Monarch.
“I guess I should be honored you use these things against me, but it appears I have been too low-key the past years. You dare stand in defiance of me, the Eveningtide Asura?” Alvod growled as [Lamentation Point], his trident and primary Spirit Tool, appeared in his hand. “I guess I have to slay a few chickens to keep the monkeys at bay.”
Another vortex appeared, and he pointed his weapon toward the hole, unleashing his wrath.
———–
Space groaned as Refestus desperately squeezed through the crack, the light from his ancestral talisman dimming by the second. The spatial turbulence pressed closer to his body, and panic filled his heart as he struggled with all his might.
Suddenly, he was through, shooting through the vacuum of space with the pent-up momentum of his daring escape. It had worked! Refestus breathed out in relief when he saw the familiar world disks in the distance, relief washing over him when spotting his homedisk. His clan should still be okay. He had been worried over the past two years, almost to the point he left early even if it went against his orders.
Refestus had known things were bad even after the first month inside the trial, but he only realized the true gravity of the situation when the sky started to tear apart. Suspicious events had passed one after another in the trial, with the foreign Hegemons causing one scene after another. Local elites such as himself could only stay out of the way, trying to fish in the muddied waters and complete the tasks they had been assigned by the council.
But how could they deal with kill-squads of foreign Hegemons with far superior equipment and Heritages? He had personally witnessed a clash between the Eidolon and some elites from the Radiant Temple. The cataclysmic battle had rather seemed like a struggle between Monarchs than Hegemons. Since then, Refestus had just gone through the motions to complete his tasks, instead focusing on survival.
A moment later the wave passed him by, and Refestus Ynovium was no longer.
——–
Zac looked around for any more attacks, but a pained wail from the Realm Spirit suddenly rocked the whole City. It seemed the Radiant Temple had managed to pull one over on the Havarok Empire and Qi’Sar, much to Zac’s delight. Of course, that only dealt with his most immediate problem.
Huge scars spread across the sky, vortices leading out of the Mystic Realm. He saw how torrents of energy and matter were being dragged inside every second as the Twilight Ocean collapsed. Zac peered into the void, looking for any clues about the outside, but there was nothing to be found at the other side of those tears. There was just endless darkness, making it uncertain if they actually led to the Twilight Harbor.
Another shudder rocked the whole mystic realm, and Zac heard a fearful shout in the distance. It was almost time, and he took out the communication crystal one final time.
“This is it,” Zac said. “Good luck out there.”
“There’s a minute or two remaining I think,” Catheya sighed on the other side. “Should we gather up?”
“We better not,” Zac muttered after some hesitation. “I kind of infuriated the Realm Spirit just now.”
“Of course you did,” Catheya laughed. “It’s comforting to see that some things stay the same even as the world crumbles.”
Zac smiled as he looked over his shoulder just in case.
“It’s been fun traveling together,” Catheya continued. “I hope we can meet up again. The road of cultivation is long, and it’s better traversed with some company.”
“Likewise,” Zac smiled. “I think I will have to lay low for a bit after this, but I hope we can meet again. Perhaps in the Heartlands, even.”
“The Heavens protect us,” Catheya giggled.
Zac hesitated for a second before he decided to come clean. “I have spoken with your ancestor.”
“You have?! How?! What did she say?” Catheya exclaimed with shock.
“Nevermind how. She said that she cannot halt her cultivation right now. But she promised me that the threat facing the Sharva’Zi clan has been averted,” Zac said.
He couldn’t bear telling the whole truth, where it seemed like Be’Zi had abandoned her previous self altogether. Instead, he mixed truths and falsehoods.
“She cannot come, after all?” Catheya said with some despondency. “Well, thank you for try-“
Catheya never finished the sentence as a weird fluctuation rippled through the Mystic Realm, causing the communication crystal to malfunction. Zac sighed as he put the crystal away before he looked up with a mix of anticipation and trepidation. The tears in the sky had combined, turning into an enormous hole that expanded with extreme speed.
In just a few seconds, it had covered half of the sky, and the Ocean Waters were suddenly just gone, reduced to a chaotic mix of Miasma and Cosmic Energy. Zac knew that this was it, and he transformed into yet another appearance while he covered himself in talismans. He urgently swore at the System to hurry up, and finally, the prompt he had waited for appeared in front of him.
The enormous spatial tear was descending like a shroud of darkness, and Zac hurriedly ate two pills while he fervently covered himself in an ashy mixture. One of the pills was another healing pill, while the second was a Karma-breaking Pill that would hopefully strengthen the efficacy of the compound he used on his body.
Next, he finally activated the array around his Specialty Core, hiding his unique constitution from any prying eyes outside. The darkness was almost upon him by this point, and Zac looked around the crumbling world with a mix of emotions. He couldn’t help but wonder if Catheya was right as he thought back to the events over the past two years.
His goal for the Twilight Harbor had simply been to push his Draugr Race to D-grade, and perhaps buy some cultivation resources for himself and the Einherjar. How had it ended up with an ancient Mystic Realm collapsing and him making enemies of multiple factions that could annihilate the whole Zecia sector if they so desired?
Were these shocking events related to the Stele of Conflict as well, or was it simply the System pushing him further down this path of no return? Or was it simply bad luck? In either case, it had left him with few options of what to do next.
It was time for him to die.