Corey’s eyes remained on the leather-bound book as he flipped to the next page.
’They smiled as they carved their skin with blades of bone. They said pain was the purest teacher.’
’They poured blood into the mouths of faceless horrifying statues, whispering that silence was the only true god.’
’They poisoned wells with their own blood and called it communion.’
’They whispered to the bones of the dead and clId they heard the truth of the world.’
’They walked barefoot into flas, claiming the fire taught them to see.’
’They would sit in silence for days, then scream a single incomprehensible word that shattered mirrors and the minds of mortals.’
’In the final winter before the stars turned red, they walked openly into Virendell’s halls... and strangely enough... no one stopped them.’
’ And when the last monarch of Virendell asked them about their purpose, they offered a crown made of broken ribs and asked, "Would you like to listen?"
Page after page. Madness after madness.
Every recorded action of the Hollow Creed was so twisted, horrifying, baffling, and full of madness that Corey could not help but wonder if they had been born that way or what power was able to twist their minds to such a point.
But even after Corey finished the last line of the final page, he frowned.
There was still no ntion of how Virendell truly fell.
Was it because of the Rift War?
Was it because of the Hollow Creed?
Was it because of sothing else entirely?
Or was it because of both the Rift War and the Hollow Creed?
Corey had no idea, and this bothered him.
He scanned the books again. Every single one of them.
His Eyes of Omniscience pierced through thousands of pages hovering in the air. But there was still nothing about the precise event that marked Virendell’s transformation into the Dying City.
And most especially... Why it beca a System Trial?
’Is this place truly Virendell? Or is it an illusion or a mory of Virendell that was created by the Universal System?’
’This place is a system trial, and I don’t know much about it... I don’t even know if all the information I’ve gathered is real... And I also don’t know if I’ll be able to take these books with into New Earth.’
’Hopefully I can or I’ll just have to bank on my Tri-Pupil Eyes being able to keep them even outside the system trial space.’
Corey closed the book on the activities of the Hollow Creed, and then his frown deepened. "Regardless... this isn’t right."
He looked around with his Eyes of Omniscience glowing brightly.
He kept on scanning every single book around him, hoping to see sothing that would help him to know more about Virendell.
Tens of thousands of books were scanned in less than a minute, but he found nothing.
However, so seconds later, he suddenly paused and turned.
There was sothing wrong with the shelf to his far left.
The layer of dust around it was... uneven.
Not only that, he could see sothing beyond the shelf through his Eyes of Omniscience.
He walked toward it slowly, and his eyes landed on a book.
A red-spined book on the second row that didn’t match the others.
Unlike the others, it had no title and no markings. It looked new, and this was extrely out of place.
He reached forward and pulled.
Click
The wall rumbled softly, gears moved beneath the floor, and then the shelf began to slide open with a low grind.
A cold gust of air drifted from the gap as the shelf opened, and then a hidden stairway that descended into darkness appeared before him.
His Eyes of Omniscience, and he could see trap formations and arrays along with so alarms, but every single one of them was no longer functional.
Ti had done its part on them, and Corey was grateful for this because he could feel the remnant power behind each formation and array.
And well... It made goosebumps to appear on his forearm.
Without saying anything or wasting any ti, his eyes transford into his Tri-Pupil Eyes, and it released a silver flash.
A black vortex appeared at the center of the orbiting books, and in less than three seconds, every single scroll, book, to, and parchnt moved into the black vortex, and was stored in his Tri-Pupil Eyes.
The Archive as as empty and all knowledge was now his.
He would study them later.
But now?
He walked into the tunnel, not knowing that his actions should not have been possible at all.
Not only did Corey not know that none of the mbers of the group was to have the opportunity to even enter the Archive because of the vast amount of knowledge it possessed, he did not know that the re fact that he was able to read and understand the books was in fact a big problem on its own.
Even if any one of them were lucky to enter the Archive, they were not ant to be able to read the books.
The Universal System knew this, but it could do nothing about it.
According to its programming and analysis, Corey who was a Tier 3 should not have any awakened any Stars of Consciousness because if he followed the normal path, he would not have been able to decipher and understand this strange and unknown language so easily and quickly if he did not have a single Star of Consciousness or his Cosmic Soul.
The Universal System knew this, and it would have stopped Corey from entering the system trial if Corey had followed the normal path and slowly awakened his Stars of Consciousness at Tier 7 and above.
But Corey was not only the person that said the words to unlock the secret trial that was inside a trial, he was just a Tier 3, and technically, his chances of surviving the trial should be extrely low because the recomnded Tier is Tier 5 and above.
Another reason why Corey and the mbers of the Thirteenth Dawn were not ant to be have the opportunity to enter the Archive was because the Universal System had calculated it.
Even till now, none of the mbers of the Thirteenth Dawn have been able to see even the shadow of the Archive.
The distance between the Archive and their current positions was just that far apart, and if they continued at their current speed, they would reach the Archive on the Third Day or the Second Night at best.
And by that ti, things would have changed.
Corey knew none of this, and he also did not know that he was lucky to have appeared in the Archive on the Second Day and not after.
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