Chapter 386: A Wall

Chapter 386: A Wall

Late Evening - Late Fall : Nkremo | Bahamut

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- Hera Monachikós ~

A field of fire, and blood. The sprawled, mangled bodies of those whom I considered comrades, and the view of humans skinning scales off the face of a lifeless child.

It looked like a battlefield.. a land of war.. yet I was in the heart of Bahamut.

It felt as if I had traveled back in time to view 'The Hero's Graveyard', a section of Bahamut that was completely decimated by the Acardi not long before I was captured.

However, this vision was of a very different time period...

Slowly looking up, I found myself standing before a wall of grey scales, each the size of islands, connecting the horizons as if splitting the continent in two.

It was the body of an armored reptile, one so large, it could destroy entire continents by simply moving over them. -The Leviathan...-

Even as a dragon that could contend for the title of 'the strongest', I felt indescribably powerless looking up its side, seeing the edge of the atmosphere only part the way up its body, even whilst most of it was hidden underground.

But the moment I blinked, the scenery changed, the battlefield turned into an endless field of glass and ash, and dozens of colossal holes bored through the serpent's body appeared.ViiSiit novelbi/n(.)c/(o)m for latest novels

It was a sight unlike anything that my imagination could create on its own, a scene of destruction unlike anything I believed possible.

Yet while I looked upon the sight with baited breath, my gaze drifted toward my feet and my heart sank.

At my feet laid a nearly unrecognizable dragon, covered in wounds so grave that there was no chance it was alive.

However, I recognized who it was in a heartbeat.

"I was dead, huh..." Vasilias, slowly straightening his posture while effortlessly hovering over the water, immediately fell into thought, as if a vision depicting his own death meant nothing.

"Are you seriously not worried about that?" -Even if you just consider it an omen...- I felt my chest tighten as the scene replayed in my mind.

But Vasilias seemed completely unbothered by it. "Not particularly... Specific details of visions typically aren't fulfilled."

"W..What..." I truly didn't even know how to react. "You fighting the Leviathan and dying is a specific detail?!" Anger quickly found its way into my voice.

But he remained completely calm. "I am likely fated to clash with Jormungandr again at some point, I won't deny that, however the result of that clash is most certainly a detail." Turning his inquisitive gaze back down to the water below us, he spoke with a sudden firmness. "I'm more worried about how this divinity got here in the first place..." As if remembering something, his expression darkened.

"But.. how do you know your death is a detail bound to change?" I spoke somewhat anxiously.

"Because visions like that only show you a single leaf on the tree of fate. A single moment in a timeline that takes place after a series of specific events, with specific results." Looking down at the water, he spoke bluntly. "Somehow, this bundle of divinity just happened to be tied to a single leaf, so when you flew over it, and it grazed you, it showed you your future at that set period in time, in that set timeline... If I'm not wrong, it would explain why the cult seemed to appear out of nowhere and spread like wildfire... All they had to do to recruit new followers was bring them out to this little patch of water, and show them their own vision..."

-So, the reason they're hailing the Leviathan is to beg for mercy...- Had they seen the same sight as me, such a reaction would make sense. "But if it shows everyone that flies over it a vision, why didn't you see one?" My tone slowly softened.

"I have no idea." He immediately shrugged. "The memories of the times I researched oracles and visions are still blurry... It could be that I was dead in the timeline the vision showed, but as far as I know, that just means it should've shown me a vision of my death..."

-Yet there was nothing...- Looking down at the black speck in the water, my thoughts raced. "Do you have any idea how a vision could be tied to an a soulless piece of divinity either?" Although it was a little hard to see from our altitude, it most certainly didn't house a soul.

"Not a clue..." Vasilias was stumped too.

Glancing over at him, I found his eyes completely focused on the chunk of divinity. "Do you think it could be something like a trap laid by the Aesir? Something to sew more discourse in Bahamut?"

"It's possible, but.. they already have rats here for that. There's no point in spreading the praise of another so-called god... Plus if it was them, they would have done this in a higher traffic area like in the channel around Emporio."

But instead of being unusually uncomfortable the whole time we swam, as he started more passionately explaining what to expect, and what certain things he spoke of were, I grew curious.

-An essentially sentient creature that isn't alive.. but instead thinks and exists purely as a sequence of electrical signals...- The more he explained, the more my confusion grew, but at the same time, the more interested I became.

"~Did the Acardi really have laboratories in the oceans that were that old?~"

He immediately nodded. "~It wouldn't surprise me if these laboratories existed before the war really started. The issue is, I don't really know. The only data logged here is related to biological life.~"

*Hmmmm* As a gentle hum slowly filled the water, distracting me from our conversation, we suddenly entered what looked like an absolutely colossal dungeon, and began following a series of long, glowing cables that lead up to a large, eerily familiar cube-shaped building.

Seeing it made my eyes go wide as it forced memories I wished I had forgotten into the forefront of my mind. -It looks just like the one I was trapped in...-

But that was only from the front.

As we swam up over it and looked down, the sight that met my eyes was unlike anything I could wrap my head around. An indescribable web of cables surrounding a glowing, humming core that even from a few hundred meters away, felt dangerous. "~What.. is that..?~"

"~Hm?~" Vasilias, not knowing what I was talking about, quickly glanced back at me. "~Are you talking about the reactor?~" Seeing me hesitantly nod as he glanced toward it, he continued with a smile. "~I built that to power this facility! Isn't it cool?~"

I honestly felt my eye twitch hearing him speak as I looked inside it with my aura. "~You must be joking.. right?~" -If anything in that malfunctions, this whole place will cease existing...- Inside the so-called 'reactor' there was essentially a constant sequence of explosions so intense they could recreate volcanic eruptions, yet were contained in a little sphere and used to 'power' the facility. -It's more complicated than anything I've ever seen too...-

Even including the Acardi equipment I looked at in the facility I was captured in. -Maybe.. I'm a bit lacking in my understanding of science still...-

I felt my confidence slowly drain the longer I looked at everything he made.

But as we swam down, oh-so-carefully navigating between the web of cables, and changed to our humanoid forms to walk inside, I nearly fainted.

The hallway, lined with pristine white tile, so polished I could see my reflection in it, was lit by countless white lights, while the air smelled like an indescribable amount of nothingness.

It was similar to the facility I was trapped in, but at the same time completely different. -What the...-

Nothing in it ran on runes or mana... -Everything is just connected by these metal wires...-

It made no sense, even after having learned most of the basics of science from Vasilias. -The facility I was trapped in had runes everywhere.. but this place.. is devoid of them...-

But he seemed completely unphased by it, gently setting his hand on my lower back while motioning me down the hall. "Don't clam up yet. You haven't even seen the cool stuff."

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