It felt surreal. For so long had Jack prepared for the Nexus event, and now that it was happening he couldn’t believe it.
With less than a year left, Jack would have to let go of everything else and prioritise the Nexus. Previously, when the universe was easier to move around in, he had planned to take the Jolly Rancher and find the Nexus spot within the Void.
Now, that was no longer feasible. Instead, he would need to prepare a formation to auto-transport him to the location as soon as it was revealed. He was slightly concerned about his Earth Immortal body being able to tolerate the teleportation, so he needed to ascend to the Heaven Immortal realm as quickly as possible, all the while building the formation as well.
At the same time... the Nexus event allowed him to get rid of any negative destinies he gained. This, in particular, was something he had been planning for a long time, and now that it had finally arrived, he could at last act upon his plans.
It was quite convenient for him right now, since he was hiding in a Mirage, he could ask for help from the big shots of the Folklore realm. They wouldn’t fulfil his tasks for him, but they also wouldn’t mind helping him with some minor matters, like getting some divine energy.
What had already anticipated, since ’Mrs Big-fat-guy’ had mentioned it, was that while the universe had not realized about the Nexus event, his own actions and changes could be detected by many so he had to be careful.
The Masterless technique took care of much of that, but he still needed to abide by the precautions told to him by them.
Jack gathered his crew, most of whom had been enjoying exploring the Mirage and chatting with everyone else caught within. They all gathered without plaint, though, for they had somewhat bee addicted to adventure, and Jack had a tendency to bring them on the best adventures.
This time, though, things were going to be different, and Bob seemed to sense as much from the moment he looked at Jack.
"Guys, moving forward, I might need to move alone for some time," said Jack in a very serious tone to ensure they understood he was not joking. "While I’m away, Tiny-Sparkles will be acting captain with the full authority to use Pebbles as a cleaning sponge if he tries to mutiny again."
The crew nodded, as if they found such a thing quite reasonable, though Pebbles himself crossed his arms as if not liking the order.
"I will be going to plete a personal mission of mine, but it won’t be restricted to just my personal issues. All of you have problems that you’ve shared with me in the past. During this excursion, I will be taking care of some of them to the best of my abilities."
Jack glanced towards Longbeard - the only one who never shared proper details about his past. Still, Jack didn’t pressure him.
"I can’t say for certain how long I’ll be gone. If everything goes according to plan, it will be one or two years at most. However, things hardly ever go according to plan, do they?"
The group didn’t say too much, though Jack had a feeling it was more because they were just sad to hear that he was leaving. Ever since they had bee a crew, they had spent most of their time together under Jack’s supervision. Without him around, it just wouldn’t feel the same.
After making sure they understood everything and wouldn’t cause any trouble - though realistically that was impossible to ensure - Jack left to go talk to the representative of the Dao Lords to see if he could get his hands on some Divine energy.
Bob, meanwhile, remained silent throughout, which was uncharacteristic of him considering he did not have a Divine pacifier in his mouth to keep him quiet.
He looked at the crew, sad, forlorn, lost, and knew that they did not understand. He did not blame them. How could ordinary folk understand the greatness of the captain?
"What good would a flower do me, while I stand in a field of roses?" Bob whispered, his words attracting the gaze of the crew, if only because they were wary of the destruction he could cause by speaking. "Why would a gem attract my envy when I stand before a mountain filled with gemstones? When would I need to go out and seek for treasure, when I have such a captain to look out for me right here?
"Why would I need to bear the burden of greatness myself, when the greatest was already bearing the burden for me all along? Why would I need mirrors and self portraits to look at, when all I want to look at is the greatness of the captain?"
Bob was about to continue speaking, but his voice choked up and his eyes teared up, forcing him to pause for a moment, allowing the crew to feel the weight of his words, to think about what he was saying.
"My voice fails me when I call out thy name, so I must only ever call you captain! Oh captain, my captain, were you only born so I could sing your endless praises? How can one ever be so great?
"Can you not see? Do you not feel it? How the captain cares for us though he has burdens of his own to bear! How the captain undertakes danger alone to solve our problems so we may not see him face danger!
"Throw me into a flaming sea or bury me in the soils of eternity, hunt me to the ends of the universe or reject me, and I will not care. What ruin could harm me more than knowing my captain goes off into the darkness all alone? What ruin could harm me more? What ruin?"
As his words washed over the crew, they all felt tears well up in their eyes as they imagined Jack heading off to danger alone for their sakes.
"We must not let the captain’s feelings go unanswered," said Tiny-Sparkles in an unusually heavy voice. "Since he is going to lighten our burdens, we must do the same. The plague that has cursed the fairies... at least within the Folklore realm, we must take it head on!"
The rest of the crew nodded subconsciously, for once not cursing Bob for his hallowed words.
Jack, not really paying attention to the reaction of his crew, was entirely unaware that they had decided to ignore his orders of not getting into trouble. He, instead, was waiting to meet the representative of the Dao Lords, all the while worrying about Lex. pared to Jack himself, Lex’s situation had bee... a whole lot more plicated.
When the crumbling sword entered the mountain, and the date for the Nexus event was decided, quite a lot of things happened. Although no one knew about the date of the Nexus event, it was clear to almost everyone that whatever was happening in the universe was not random.
A massive change occurred in the Dream realm, causing even Wu Kong and Elrang to pause their fight! Someone had finally discovered what the treasure hidden within the Dream realm was! It was a massive, massive platform of some kind, every inch of it imbued with such intense Dao radiation that even Dao Lords themselves had to take precautions.
No one knew what the platform did, but its discovery alone had triggered it, causing all Dao Lords to sense its location. Although they did not yet know what it did, they had a faint feeling that with this alone, they could bee the most powerful beings in the universe.
The destiny of the universe shifted in such an immense way that Destiny herself was forced to pay attention, and what she saw intrigued her. She even decided to pause her own current actions and take a step forward towards the Dream realm - not personally, but through her subordinates.
If she acted first, she could get the lead against the others. After all, they could not see destiny the way she could. There was no way they could uncover the secret of this platform as quickly as she had.
Within the Gilded Hollow, Lex paused his preparations when he heard a voice that was both extremely familiar, and yet entirely foreign to him.
"No matter what happens, child, you must retake your body before the Nexus event," the voice whispered in Lex’s mind.
He did not know who the voice was from. He had been dealing with so many Dao Lords that any one of them could have left behind some instructions of hypnosis on him, or maybe even some way to connect to him. He had a feeling, though, that Nuwa would not allow such a thing. So then who could have left this message for him?
The scary thought was that this wasn’t even a message, and that someone was actually talking to him directly, all without his knowledge. Such was the risk of dealing with high level beings so frequently.
For some reason, though, Lex felt like the voice had not interfered with him at all, and that his advice was quite genuine, not to mention important.
With a solemn expression, he took a deep breath, and decided to talk to the Fortune Lord.
Reviews
All reviews (0)