MoP: Ch. 159

---Third POV---

The moment the orb slipped from Viktor's hand, every alarm in his mind started screaming. Without hesitation, he whipped around and shouted at Alyanne, "Get over here! Now!"

Alyanne froze for a heartbeat, but her mercenary instincts kicked in faster than rational thought. She retreated from the stone monument.

Before the shockwave could reach them, Zycotl rapidly reshaped itself in front of Viktor, transforming into a massive silver shield.

The moment the shield solidified, the air in front of them twisted. The space inside and outside the shield distorted into two completely different scenes.

The surrounding trees were all sheared cleanly in half about two meters from the ground, toppling over with crashes. They hit the earth hard, stirring up clouds of dust and leaves.

An unlucky snake got caught in the chaos, sliced into pieces while still airborne. The segments fell to the ground.

Soon enough, the violent energy faded, and the forest returned to calm.

The orb rolled a few times on the ground before bumping gently against the shield.

The silver shield slowly dissolved away, and Viktor bent down to pick up the orb. It had returned to its original cracked form, except that the divine fragment inside had been drained to almost nothing.

"Thank god I transferred two fragments' worth of divine power into it beforehand. Otherwise, the protective wards would've been blown to pieces."

He'd been worried earlier that without the divine fragments working together, they might lose their original function. But now it was clear, these divine fragments had been specifically designed to target him. Better to have drained them all early and avoided this clusterfuck.

He gently stroked the unharmed Zycotl.

Then he fed it more mana. Zycotl's defensive power was immense, but likewise, sustaining the runes engraved on it demanded an enormous amount of magical energy.

The small mana node at Honeyvale Town had to nourish not only Zycotl, but also the automated machines running the town's infrastructure. Mana was getting tight, and that was becoming a serious problem.

At that moment, Alyanne's shocked voice came: "Look at the monument!"

Viktor raised his head and felt his jaw try to drop again.

The once plain, ancient-looking stone monument had suddenly swelled to five meters tall, tearing open a warped, pitch-black spatial rift.

He walked closer with the orb in hand.

The gray hemisphere of the orb instantly displayed the map. The black-and-white spheres within it pulsed even more frequently.

"A teleportation array?"

He spread Zycotl flat into a workbench and said, "Step back. I'll calculate the destination on the other side."

After Alyanne complied, backing away, Viktor pulled out two glossy black pebbles. He processed them briefly on the workbench, muttering arcane formulas under his breath, then tossed them into the rift.

The stones disappeared into the darkness.

After about ten minutes that felt like an hour, one pebble, now only half its original size, was "spat" back out of the portal.

He crushed it between his fingers, and the powdered remains spread across the workbench. He sketched out a complex magic formation.

After a while, he exhaled deeply and stood up.

"This is a timed teleportation array, good for one use only."

Alyanne looked at the pebble, then back at the portal.

"Then... isn't it useless?"

Viktor smiled and shook his head.

"Of course not. These stones carry spatial properties, they record the state inside the rift. As long as they don't reach the far end, they don't consume a usage."

He touched the remaining powder thoughtfully.

"A teleportation array with a ten-day limit... leading straight to Mount Wolcen. It would indeed avoid the high-level monsters along the way, but... what reason do I have to go there? It's a death passage, straight into the lairs of Level 7 or 8 beasts."

Was he looking to make his life even more complicated than it already was?

With a wave, he dispelled the spatial rift, and it reverted back into the stone monument. Zycotl also reassembled itself into wheelchair form.

"Let's go. We're heading back."

Alyanne looked back reluctantly.

"Are we really just going to ignore it?"

Even though she didn't know what lay beyond the spatial rift, they had the map and the key in hand, it seemed natural to go investigate.

"Aren't you curious what's in there?"

"Ever heard the phrase 'curiosity killed the cat'?" Viktor asked.

The whole reason he'd come here was to see if the monument could open something that truly tempted him. But a one-way, time-limited teleportation passage? Not only did it fail to tempt him, it made him lose all interest in continuing.

His body was still covered in wounds. To head to Mount Wolcen within ten days would be sheer lunacy, even by his standards.

He'd leave the monument here for ten days instead. He wanted to see whether the rift's existence would extend if he didn't enter.

Viktor opened his system panel to check if any new matters had piled up. Then suddenly, out of the corner of his vision, he noticed a line of information that made him stop.

[Name: Viktor von Vinesse]
[...]
[Skills: Divine Insight, Shapeshifter, Multiple Avatars (999/1001)]

1001?

The upper limit of his divine avatars had increased! And it had just happened right now!

Beside him, Alyanne was still puzzling over his earlier comment.

"Curiosity killed the cat, what does that mean? Is it some kind of feline beastfolk trait?"

Viktor suddenly stopped moving.

Alyanne nearly collided with him. She asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

"How many days until the players' rescue of the sirens?"

"If I remember correctly, eleven days."

Aside from Viktor, she held the highest position in Honeyvale Town, so she knew quite a bit about player activities. The players planned to rescue the sirens on the day before the auction began, during their transfer. Before that, they were doing infiltration and intelligence-gathering.

No matter how well-prepared they were, they would eventually launch an assault.

Viktor let out a long sigh.

"Ten days... eleven days. What a coincidence."

He could go through the spatial rift first, and then deal with the player situation afterward. With a thought, Zycotl accelerated.

"Alyanne, for the next few days, set aside matters at the magic school. Temporarily handle the territory's affairs in my place. If anything comes up that you can't decide, leave it on my desk. I'll deal with it when I return."

"Return? You've changed your mind?"

Viktor gave a slight nod.

"Weren't you just curious about what lay beyond the rift? Why the long face now?"

Alyanne opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.

She was curious about the artifact's use, but she also knew how dangerous Mount Wolcen was. A monster core zone that had been overrun for six hundred years, no one knew what it had become by now.

Some even suspected that Level 8 monsters had already gained intelligence. That would mean absolute dominance over ordinary magicians.

"Stop, stop!"

Viktor couldn't help but cut her off.

He was too used to Alyanne's habit of voicing all her thoughts, and had long since given up correcting it. But he had to at least dispel the rumor about Level 8 monsters.

"People always exaggerate the unknown into an insurmountable gulf. But rest assured, Level 8 monsters absolutely do not possess the possibility of intelligence."

"Why?"

"Because I can see the future."

"The future?!" Alyanne widened her eyes and repeated.

The two locked eyes in silence.

Not even two seconds later, Viktor broke into laughter.

With his hand, he rubbed Alyanne's hair.

"Just kidding. The Watchers already have intelligence on high-level monsters."

Alyanne stiffened for two seconds, carefully studying Viktor's expressionless face.

Only then did her features gradually relax.

She patted her chest.

"You really know how to joke. Matters concerning the Twin Gods shouldn't be spoken of lightly."

Viktor raised his brows.

"You're actually afraid of that? The God of Time and the God of Space have long been absent from the world. Their traces should be scarce at best. You don't even know about the Snow God, yet you claim to know about the God of Time and the God of Space?"

Looked down upon, Alyanne angrily put her hands on her hips.

"Of course! Mercenaries aren't just illiterate brutes!"

"The future and its connection to the Twin Gods is a compulsory subject for every mage! Only slightly less famous than The Watchers themselves!"

"...More famous than them, huh? What an honor."

Alyanne coughed into her hand.

"That's not the point. What matters is the Gods of Time and the God of Space..."

She quickly shifted the topic.

While they rode the teleportation array back to Honeyvale Town, she poured out her understanding of the Twin Gods.

Most people, when speaking of the future, assumed it belonged solely to the domain of the God of Time. But in Aeltia, the future was in fact composed of two parts: time and space. Jointly ruled by the divine twins, the God of Time and the God of Space.

Because of the Faith Wars, the authorities of the gods had gradually bled into one another. All gods possessed, to some degree, the ability to connect their authority with the world's laws, allowing them to divine glimpses of the future.

Every few years, they could deliver "oracles" or "prophecies." This bolstered their prestige and aided their churches in spreading faith. But whenever one tried to divine, mistakes were inevitable.

The only ones capable of prophecies backed by law itself, with one-hundred-percent accuracy, were the the Gods of Time and the God of Space.

In history, the Twin Gods had only cooperated twice, revealing the future they saw together through their authorities.

One prophecy fixed the final number of deities, setting an upper limit on how many mortals could ascend to godhood. The other foretold the Twilight of the Gods.

The span of time in these prophecies was so vast, it was far beyond the reach of ordinary deities' imagination.

After proclaiming the Twilight of the Gods, the divine twins never met again.

Everyone speculated that, after the gods marched toward their inevitable ruin, the more distant future was none other than the end of the world. The two gods, unwilling to see such a vision, chose to deceive themselves through separation.

And the people of Aeltia were the same. Everyone could sense that this so-called "peaceful coexistence" with monsters was but a fragile facade. Yet they still chose to close their eyes, and indulge in the comfort of "peace."

As for the future that could only bring terrible tidings, they had no interest in it, and even feared its very mention.

By the time they returned to Honeyvale Town, Alyanne's account had finally reached its end.

Viktor's gaze drifted into the distance, lost in other thoughts.

"Living only in the present, unwilling to think of the future... But what if the future can be changed?"

"You're joking again. The future seen by the Twin Gods is impossible to change."

Alyanne slowly pushed the wheelchair forward. Even now, she had yet to get used to The Watcher's strange sense of humor.

"But you don't actually know the exact details of those two 'futures,' do you? For example, the final number of gods?"

"Huh?"

Alyanne tilted her head in puzzlement.

"Those two 'futures' are already in the past. Is there even a need to know them? Everyone says anyway, the futures seen by the Twin Gods always come true."

Viktor's voice remained calm. "They'll be useful."

Because both "futures" had yet to actually come to pass.

He released Zycotl from Alyanne's control, switched it into autopilot, and then parted ways with her at the mission point.

"But we should discuss this somewhere else, perhaps that new magic school we mentioned? Before that, I'll leave the affairs of the territory in your hands."

Alyanne immediately straightened and replied seriously, "Please rest assured, I will take good care of the territory!"

With that, she hurried toward the mission point.

If she was to temporarily handle lordship duties, she first had to finish her previous tasks.

Viktor gazed at Alyanne's retreating figure from afar and let out a sigh.

"Thinking less really does make one live more happily..."

Even with his heavy hints, she had no desire to press him with further questions. So this was what people called contentment bringing joy... No desire to probe the truths of the world. No concern for the future. Everything around her could be enjoyed as simple pleasures.

Shaking his head, he turned around.

"Well then, the secrets of The Watchers should still be handled by Watchers."

If he looked on the bright side, maybe the trip to Mount Wolcen wasn't that terrifying after all. Not to the point where he needed to appoint a messenger in advance.

...Probably?

He glanced once toward the street corner, then urged Zycotl to speed away.

After the two had left, Booze emerged from that very corner, mouth agape.

"Prophecies of the Gods of Time and the God of Space?"

Originally, he had planned to spend 20 magicoins on a teleportation array, head near the Great Pit Ruins, and gather some alchemy ingredients to save up travel funds for Nary Town.

Running into Viktor and Alyanne had been pure chance.

True to the fine virtues of a player, he immediately hit the translation button to eavesdrop. And managed to catch everything from beginning to end.

He rubbed his hands together.

"Elusive gods... prophecies foretelling the world's end..."

Based on his experience watching... cough, cough... playing countless games, these two prophecies were very likely the main storyline clues.

He'd just found his way out of the starter village.

Without hesitation, he changed course.

"Hahaha, I knew it! Top-tier players in this patch are really the story-driven ones!"

---

After a simple mission handover, the news of Alyanne temporarily assuming lordship was announced to all the players and townsfolk.

The table in front of Viktor was instantly cleared. He couldn't help but sigh.

"...Haven't seen it this empty in ages."

He shed a metaphorical tear for his miserable career as lord.

Fortunately, the next ten days would be the quietest the lord's mansion had ever known. He had already told Alyanne that he would be taking some private time, and no one would disturb him.

He intended to use this period to raise his strength to the level necessary to face the dangers of Mount Wolcen.

Optimism was a good thing. But given his luck, which was never particularly good, he preferred to be fully prepared before venturing through the space rift.

Opening his storage space, he pulled out the materials he needed.

An assortment of potions, ores, and beast bones quickly piled up on the table.

"Osseous Vitae... here. And the Netherit Flower restorative potion, its effect is weak, but at least it can mend mental damage."

He weighed the dark purple blossom in his hand, as though it had just been plucked from the branch.

"With these materials, plus the new stock in the warehouse, I should be able to cure at least forty percent of the symptoms of inner sanctum collapse."