“What about the non-corrupted tilines?” Zac asked. “Won’t the people from there attack us too?”
“I’ve already told you that our reality only holds one true tiline, only one version of us. They’re all just mories with the details slightly different. The problem with the invaders is that the First Era’s corruption has sohow made them aware of the omnipresence chamber and the world outside,” Esralda said. “Speaking of which, we should probably get going. The perceptive ones might notice us if we linger here.”
“Fine,” Zac nodded.
They’d never planned on taking a break after coming this far, and seeing the ssy entanglent with the Peregrine Ocean only underscored the need for speed. Tasks were quickly divided, and they set out. Esralda was in charge of identifying the most troubleso tilines. The corruption wasn’t out in the open as Zac was used to. The only way to find the damaged tilines was by inferring through the fluctuations of ti and space.
Esralda would perform her survey from the center of the realm. She needed to form a basic connection to [Second Singularity] to stuff it into the hunting lodge, and she was responsible for keeping watch for recoil when Zac began detaching tilines. Zac’s job was much simpler. His only job was to close the bridges as quickly as possible.
Still, it was with extre caution that Zac approached the blob of silver water pointed out by Esralda. He’d already opened three vortices; two far away from him and each other, while a third trailed behind him. The Peregrine Ocean’s aura was currently restrained, but he hadn’t forgotten its lethality. He needed to be ready to get away at a mont’s notice in case it sprung a leak.
Zac suddenly blanked out as he peered into the rippling waters. A vast world spread out before him, filling his consciousness. He witnessed innurable lives going about their day, all with their own hopes and aspirations. A suffocating feeling of imnse consequence ca crashing down on him.
He would be the first to admit he had terrifying amounts of blood on his hands, but even Zac reeled at the notion of extinguishing all life in a whole reality. Who was he to judge who’d survive and who’d get expelled? Just by taking a stance, he would shackle his Karma with misery beyond comprehension.
Zac shook as a pulse of nothingness swept through him, waking him up to the truth. He took a shuddering breath, realizing he’d almost ford a heart demon from listening to the lies of the Lost Plane. The lives he saw might be real in so ways, but in a much truer sense, they were not. He was just observing a detailed recording of a long-gone era, lives that had reached their natural conclusion in the distant past.
Furthermore, this recording was filled with madness, directly threatening the chance of real imperials to walk out of the dream. Like Esralda said, their theft was an act of benevolence. Cutting ties with these erroneous tilines was helping the Limitless Empire maintain the fla of hope.
With his mind stabilized, Zac began contemplating his task in earnest. The rift was much too large to just smash with his [Fuxi Mountain Gate] like he did on Sevona’s island, and suffocating the whole ocean with [Void Zone] was out of the question. Its suppression wasn’t strong enough, and the ocean wasn’t even in this space. Zac was only able to stand before it because the waters were kept in an alternate layer of reality.
The good news was that the arrangent was well past its pri. Different from the magic circles he’d seen inside the mory domain, the ones surrounding the patch of ocean should have been installed when [Second Singularity] was sealed. The tilines of the Omnipresence Chamber had probably fed it with just enough Imperial Faith to keep the magic circles going, but the faith was not what it once was.
The expiration date of the circles had co and gone long before they arrived on the Left Imperial Expanse. Most likely, they’d start failing on their own in a few months. Zac frowned at the thought. Could the elders of the Imperial Court have estimated things with such precision, using natural decay as a fallback in case no one brought [Second Singularity] away?
Zac shook his head. He needed to get a grip. The Empire’s looming shadow had grown so large that he was ready to attribute almost anything to their foresight. Even if it was planned, a natural decoupling would be far from ideal. He wouldn’t be surprised if it opened for the invaders to take advantage again. Zac wouldn’t give them the opportunity.
So of the runes were in a worse state than others, creating an array full of weaknesses that even Zac could spot. This was the opportunity he needed. Zac’s right arm turned into a blur as swirls of death pooled around [Death’s Duality]. Channeling [Fatehew], Zac struck one of the golden sigils head-on.
Zac’s mind scread with danger, and he narrowly avoided a jet of silver water spurting in his direction. The rune recovered, showing no signs of permanent damage. Even in its weakened state, the magic circle was propped up by unyielding devotion that wouldn’t bend to Death’s inexorable pull. Zac wasn’t surprised. After all, this whole setup was part of the empire’s desperate attempt to overco death.
Targeting the runes with a few other skills yielded the sa result. Sevona’s visions had already hinted that the Void was the key to completing the mission; Zac simply wanted to get a better understanding of the runes. With that out of the way, Zac activated [Void Mountain]. The inverted mountain descended, this ti appearing just above his Cosmic Core inside his Quantum Space.
A pure current of Anti-Dao was significantly more effective than exhausting the runes with his skills. The magic circle was constantly replenishing the loss, but not at the pace that Zac was burning it. The golden shimr faded into a sickly yellow until it could no longer bear the pressure of the Peregrine Ocean. The rune snapped, and a larger leak of water flooded the area. Thankfully, the realm’s rejection quickly expelled the foreign matter to the outer spatial layers.
By that ti, the magic circle had already rearranged its patterns to ensure operations. Undeterred, Zac pinpointed a second weak link. He barreled into it like a runaway train, slamming the rune of [Void Mountain] into it. With the energy flow already unstable, the power of Dao Annihilation imdiately beca the straw that broke the cal’s back.
The rune shattered, the circle held on, and Zac kept going. He could do this all day—literally—and he knew he was making progress. The ocean was actually shrinking as its bond to [Second Singularity] weakened. Its domain also lost ground against the push of the surrounding gateways. It was like each tiline wanted to claim as much of [Second Singularity]’s territory for itself as possible, like an instinctual drive for preservation.
The gradual process took a sudden turn when the eleventh rune shattered. The remaining runes couldn’t maintain function, and they lost their cohesion. They regressed into swirls of Imperial Faith, which was swallowed by the rippling silver. The connection was cut, and a trendous pull imdiately tried to drag Zac into the abyss. The pull was so strong that just resisting took almost all he had.
Thankfully, the restraints didn’t extend to the vortex swirling just behind him. With a ntal command, it jumped forward and swallowed Zac whole. The gate itself disintegrated before Zac erged, avoiding being dragged into the other tiline. Zac had no idea what would happen if his Void Realm swallowed that terrifying silver water, but it couldn’t possibly be anything good.
Zac hadn’t forgotten the true nature of the Peregrine Ocean. It was either the blood of a fallen Supremacy or their extracted cultivation. The suffering he experienced from forcibly swallowing part of [Twin Eclipse] would be nothing compared to trying to consu the silver water. And this ti, there was no Realmlord ready to patch him up.
An urgent shout reached Zac just as he erged from one of his backup gates. “It’s about to blow! Move to section twelve!”
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Zac quickly oriented himself before turning into a streak of Abyssal Death. They’d divided the realm into sixteen sections for ease of communication, and section twelve was nearby. A blinding flash seared Zac’s retinas just as he returned to his normal form. A cone of pure malevolence filled a third of his vision when his sight returned.
Three whole sections had been filled with the most harrowing stream of corruption that Zac had ever witnessed. Not even the ambience of the true Lost Plane could compare to the corruption that had been infinitely compressed inside the Supre Spatial Treasure. Zac quickly looked away, but it was already too late. Madness sprouted like mushrooms after rain.
“Get out!” Zac roared, triggering an eruption of energy from his Cosmic Core.
A storm of Life, Death, and Conflict swept through the Quantum Space, subrging the Soul Cores in energy. Small specks of darkness were excavated and swept away. Zac took a shuddering breath after suppressing the voices in his mind. There was no encore since the cone only lingered for a mont. So of it was swallowed by the other tilines, while most broke through the bounds of the hidden realm to rush off to so unknown plane.
Nevertheless, to say it was gone wasn’t entirely accurate. There were a smattering of oily specks lingering inside the realm, resisting the power of expulsion. As though alive, they gathered into a wriggling web with engorged nodes. It looked like supersized bacteria, and it was trying to return to [Second Singularity] where it was born.
“Ack! Keep that ugly thing away from !” Esralda exhorted, her hands a blur.
The toad was surrounded by extrely complex runes that poured into the singularity. It looked like the toad was using the gap opened by the release of corruption to leave her own mark on the treasure. If the corruption was allowed to return, her hard work would be undone. Zac had no choice but to put the next magic circle on hold and change course. He opened another vortex, shifting positions to directly intercept the corruption.
Thankfully, less than a percent of a percent remained of the previous outburst. Any more, and Zac would have been in real trouble. As it was, the tangle didn’t quite possess the sapience of a Qriz’Ul. It lashed out on instinct when sensing a threat, but its crude attacks posed no danger. This wasn’t a problem that required further expenditure of Void Energy.
The keening call of inexorability sang, and the tangle was cut in two. Pustules were punctured by chains dripping with corrosion. Pockets of corruption were isolated and whittled down by Zac’s Inexorable Path, and the corrupted tangle shrank at a speed visible to the naked eye. Soon enough, only a few discarnate shreds remained, which were swiftly cleansed with a burst of [Void Zone].
“Everything’s okay on your end?” Zac asked after flying over to Esralda’s side.
“I’m fine,” Esralda said with a grin. “I’ve inserted the first hook.”
“You weren’t kidding before about it spitting out corruption,” Zac muttered.
“Just my little baby expelling so gunk,” Esralda said with excitent, her eyes veritably burning as she lovingly gazed at the dot of supercondensed space. “You’re a good boy, ain’tcha? Removing all the bad stuff before Esralda gobbles you up.”
“So long as you’re fine…” Zac said with a raised brow. “Have you found the next one?”
“Over there.” Esralda pointed at another tiline. “Be careful. The balance in here was already fraught, and removing one realm has created a ripple effect.”
Zac nodded and imdiately set out. Even he could notice the ripple Esralda referred to. The different tilines weren’t just clashing around the spot where Zac closed the first magic circle. Borders were constantly being redrawn in a silent war between worlds, making the whole realm increasingly unstable. If not for occasionally reactivating [Void Zone] to recalibrate, Zac would already have lost any semblance of orientation.
Still, the dangers were manageable, and Zac’s efficacy grew with every gate he closed. The accumulation of corruption spat out by [Second Singularity] also grew weaker over ti. It was only a matter of ti before it would be safe for Esralda to consu. Still, Zac didn’t lower his guard. When had things ever gone smoothly for him? His suspicions proved right when he sealed away the eighth corrupted tiline.
A powerful fluctuation suddenly swept through [Second Singularity]’s inner realm. The familiar aura made Zac stop in place and warily look around. Indeed, that guy still hadn’t given up. While still weak and distant, there was no mistaking the aura. It belonged to August, the false god who tried to usurp Sevona’s divinity. After laying low for months, that corrupted creature was once more extending his tendrils across tilines.
Had August sensed the threat to his tiline? Or worse, was this a personal vendetta where he honed in on their location because of Zac’s presence? He had ruined the false god’s attempt at attaining true godhood by closing the dinsional gate at the eleventh hour. That was enough reason to take revenge. Failing to find which tiline the scan ca from, Zac turned to Esralda. She shook her head and signaled for him to keep going and to speed things up.
‘What an unreliable Goddess,’ Zac complained to himself as he rushed for the next gate.
They hadn’t heard a peep from Idiche or whatever she called herself now since leaving Sevona’s island. He’d hoped that she’d busied herself taking care of lingering threats like August in the months that had passed. There was little hope for her coming to their rescue now. They’d only ever seen corrupted invaders and Qriz’Ul stepping out of mories.
Zac tore into the next gateway like a man possessed, dodging its outbursts by the slimst of margins to destroy the magic gate at the highest possible speed. It was no wonder they failed in Sevona’s vision. There were at least two dozen tilines with clear signs of corruption and likely a few that would need more thorough scanning. Taking care of just nine had drained a third of his Void Energy reserves.
In the vision, Zac neither had his current Void Energy reserves nor easy ways of recovering his Void Energy. He’d already recovered half of what he’d lost through his human side, leaving him with more than 80% in his tank. In the vision, Zac also lacked [Earthly Do], which had acted as a safety net throughout. He could still have made do without it, but at greater cost and a slower pace.
His engine would be running on fus right about now. With August breathing down their throats, Esralda would have no choice but to fuse with [Second Singularity] while it still held dangerous levels of corrupted spaceti. While still dangerous, the situation was much better now.
The ninth gateway crumbled. Instead of disappearing, August’s presence grew stronger.
‘He’s using the fluctuations of the colliding tilines to locate us,’ Esralda warned.
‘So what should we do?’
‘There’s nothing we can do but keep going. Sooner or later, you’ll pick the right one,’ Esralda said. ‘If he’s about to descend, I’ll just have to swallow the singularity ahead of schedule.’
Zac refused to see a repeat of the past, and he continued through the next gateway like a man possessed. Ten, eleven, twelve. Tilines kept collapsing under [Void Mountain]. Zac couldn’t be certain, but he felt the Bloodline Talent had gained an imperceptible weight to it. It seed like erasing high-grade Daos didn’t drain as much Void Energy as before, and the speed had improved too.
Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on Zac’s side. August’s presence was stronger than ever by the ti Zac had closed all twenty-two obviously corrupted tilines. Finding the ones lurking in the shadows would be difficult. The inner realm had descended into an all-out war after the rapid outbursts.
‘Sothing’s wrong! There’s a pattern!’
“Pattern?” Zac muttered, suddenly drawing on a set of runes in his mind. “Courtesy through rite, wisdom through imagery...”
Zac’s vision shifted, adding a new dinsion. Suddenly, he saw thousands of bridges all around him. They were the connections made from condensed spaceti, each holding countless possibilities. And in so cases, madness. Torrents of ichor suddenly burst from Zac’s Abyssal eyes as deep cracks opened up. He’d witnessed sothing beyond his tolerance, but that brief glimpse was all he needed.
“It’s you!” Zac growled, rushing toward a tiline that Esralda hadn’t pointed out.
It didn’t have the sa distinct aura as the world he’d briefly visited on Sevona’s island, yet he trusted what he’d seen. That seemingly ordinary tiline was a spider in the web, connecting to more than a third of the realm’s gateways through almost invisible bonds. Zac would never have noticed if the chaos hadn’t reached a crescendo. If he could close it, the whole network would collapse.
The waters rippled as if it knew it had been exposed, and it suddenly shot out hundreds of water jets. Zac managed to destroy a few, but he wasn’t the target. The jets crashed into its bonded tilines to create a secondary connection. And then, the spider began devouring its subordinate dinsion.
‘Not good!’ Zac thought, but it was too late to stop.
The small patch of ocean ballooned to ten tis its original size. Not only that, it gained an oily layer of corruption. That was to be expected. More disappointing was that the runes of Imperial Faith had been bolstered by the transformation rather than breaking down on their own. Zac only managed to destroy three runes before his mind scread of danger.
Zac pulled back, narrowly dodging a spear that erged from the water. He frowned, seeing it bulging in dozens of spots. Then, he saw the unmistakable contours of a face. They were breaking through. He only had ti to realize the danger before the first man appeared. The fact that he was only Late D-grade wasn’t much of a comfort since he was just the first of many.
One by one, they forced their way through the shimring wall to appear before him. Zac’s expression grew overcast as he saw multiple familiar faces. So were figures he’d seen during the worship ceremony; others were Sealbearers he’d read about in reports. All of them reeked of corruption, to the point that they sported tumorous growths or horrid mutations.
Chains rattled as [Death’s Duality] appeared in Zac’s hand. Since these foul creatures refused to go down without a fight, he’d just have to cut them down along with the portal they crawled out of.
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