Divine Apostasy Book 11 - Chapter 47

Chapter 47

“Something’s wrong,” Ruin told Deryssa. He displayed the log entry and then the Specialization he’d been given.

Deryssa frowned and her forehead wrinkled. “I don’t know what any of this means. It’s like the System is broken.”

“Aeonrial somehow modified the Material Realm System and integrated the Destruction Realm System with it. Probably the Creation Realm too assuming they have a System. Did you know about the six broken seals on Heaven’s Gate?”

“No, but information like that would be closely guarded. Perhaps the Emperor knows back home. I thought the location of the gate was lost, but this message infers the System has knowledge of the location since it displayed details of these seals.”

“I don’t think we can trust the System completely. Let alone a modified combination of three Systems. Do you know what the sacred hymns are or what the Avatar of Cycles is?”

“No and no. Since it’s your only choice there’s no point in delaying. Choose it and see what benefit it grants. Perhaps it will give us a clue.”

Ruin accepted the Specialization and his skin prickled. He shivered from the sensation as the next Notification appeared. He displayed it for Deryssa to see.

 Ping!

Congratulations Avatar of Cycles!

You have gained the following Passive ability:

Sound of Silence – generate a harmonic substrate in all environments. Area dependent on evolution, Will, resonance, and base hymn level.

“Void take me,” Deryssa cursed. “Nothing about you makes any sense!”

“Trust me, I feel the same way. So I take it from your response that this passive ability is something you’ve never seen.”

Deryssa continued to mutter to herself before turning on Ruin. “Don’t add any gems to your Heritage Arrays until I can figure out how all this is related. You are so complicated I want to scream.”

“I’m not even trying.”

Ruin thought Deryssa might actually scream, but she disappeared instead.

Ruin stood alone staring at the three groups of sigils that had started this whole mess. He decided not to loot any of the sigils. Instead, he slowly walked around and studied each of them briefly, so that he had a perfect image in case it came in handy later. He worried if he looted one it might attach to his Meridian and then complicate his plan on placing a larger and more complicated symbol later.

That done, Ruin released the eighty-one luck he’d borrowed from Fate’s Balance since it warned skewing the balance of luck too long would cause disastrous consequences. The last thing he wanted was disastrous consequences.

Ruin glanced through his Profile to see if anything had changed.

Profile

Name: Ruin Val’dor

Race: Saraph

Age: 2 Days

Class: Destruction Emperor

Specialization: Avatar of Cycles

Level: 50

Fortification Tier: Divine – Archangel (Peak)

Soul Level: 2

Soul Vault Count: 0

Shadow Core: Rank 6

Core Type: Special - Apocalypse

Core Vault: 0/5

Inventory: 5,160/20,000

Karmic Offset: 50

Harmonic Spell Points: 4

Destruction Needle (DeN): 3,261,505

Level Token: 51

Temporal Offset: 0

Ruin stopped and reread the Temporal Offset again. Its value had changed. A lot. He had accumulated ninety-seven years and eleven days with all his various time dilation activities. Now it read zero.

What had changed? Ruin had just viewed his Profile when speaking with Zylkin about what Tower to start in to gain hardening runes, and his time baggage had certainly not been zero. Could it have happened when he’d battled the Towers? When he pushed his consciousness to the ancient towers or when battling the guardian there. Could the entity that awoke in those ancient towers have done it?

While inside this Dark Tower dungeon he’d created the transition area Purgatory, pushed his actual mind outside his body, and created a mental domain. He’d used Fate’s Balance to alter his luck, used all his long cooldowns on his potion buffs, and used his Void Heritage gem to purge Void energy from his body. Then just lately he'd figured out the true shape of the Hardening sigils, advanced to level fifty, and gained a Specialization Deryssa had never heard of. This Avatar of Cycles had a passive that created some sort of harmony field. Could that be responsible?

“Wow, a lot has happened in the last day,” Ruin muttered to himself.

Regardless, something Ruin had done had cleared almost a hundred years of time baggage. It was a massive discovery. Once he’d isolated what was responsible, he’d figure out how to duplicate it for his friends. Then there would be nothing to stop them from abusing time dilation.

The first thing Ruin needed was to regain some Temporal Offset. That way he could methodically go through the possibilities he controlled to see what purged it.

Now that Ruin had increased his level to fifty, the maximum time dilation he could purchase at the beginning of the Tower dungeons should have risen as well. At level one he’d had the option of ten percent dilation for this current dungeon.

With a mental command Ruin exited the dungeon, leaving the sigils where they hovered. His mental domain followed him and filled the chamber that contained the Tower elevator.

First Ruin would get prices for whatever the System store had for dilation. Then he’d compare that to the dungeon prices.

Ruin opened the mobile merchant and searched for time related training items. He wasn’t currently interested in weapons that increased Haste by altering time around themselves or armor that slowed attacks as they neared. He found what he wanted and looked at the cheapest version of all three.

Name: Elixir of Slowing

Type: Elixir

Uses: 1

Duration: 30 seconds.

Subjective Duration: 5 minutes.

Description: A black liquid with suspended motes of silver. When consumed, the user is separated from the local temporal offset. The effect allows them to move and react faster relative to the world around them, though the dilation is mild and fades quickly.

Cost: 100,000 DeN

Name: Temporal Field Generator

Type: Dimensional Distortion (Small)

Uses: 1

Area: 100 square feet

Duration: 3 days

Subjective Duration: 30 days

Description: A small, intricate dimensional warping device. When activated, the item projects a translucent temporal field separate from the local temporal offset. This effect can last up to 3 days providing a month of offset.

Cost: 5,000,000 DeN

Name: Chronos Chamber

Type: Enchanted Structure (Small)

Uses: 1

Capacity: 3

Duration: 3 hours

Subjective Duration: 30 days

Description: A circular chamber engraved with intricate sigils. Once activated, the chamber generates a pocket of slowed time. Days pass within the chamber while only hours elapse in the outside world.

Cost: 150,000,000 DeN

The field generator and chamber cost more than Ruin’s current savings. He bought an Elixir of Slowing to study later. Its effects were short lived, but it would set him down the right path. There were items to get rid of temporal offset baggage, but they cost over ten times what slowing items did.

Name: Temporal Shedding

Type: Elixir

Uses: 1

Effect: Dissolves up to an hour of accumulated temporal offset

Description: A grey liquid with black motes. When taken a small amount of temporal offset is consumed.

Cost: 1,250,000 DeN

Ruin gained a new appreciation for whatever had caused his accumulated time baggage to disappear. It had negated almost ninety-eight years, and this elixir cost over a million DeN to purge an hour. If he hadn’t spent almost all his money, he’d buy one of these shedding elixirs. They were expensive though, and they didn’t provide much benefit. He’d buy one later if whatever his own method was didn’t work out.

The word ‘Fortification’ caught Ruin’s eye, and he opened the best one.

Name: Fortification Cocoon (Tier 3)

Type: Enchanted Structure (Small)

Uses: 1

Capacity: 1

Duration: 10 days

Subjective Duration: 1 year

Description: An oblong structure engraved with intricate sigils. Once activated, the cocoon renders the user unconscious, and using environmental energy, Fortifies their body up to Tier 3 Level 1. Efficiency and results are highly dependent on ambient energy quality and quantity.

Cost: 10,000,000 DeN

It confused Ruin why such massive time dilation would only cost ten million when the other time dilation items were far more expensive. On his second read through, he realized it was because the user was knocked out for the process. So the user couldn’t do anything else, which meant this item was only useful for its intended purpose.

Ruin assumed this cocoon was meant for the Destruction Realm. If his friends used the cocoon here, it would fill their cells with Destruction Energy, which would certainly kill them. He doubted the Voidguard rings Varthon gave him would protect against an entire body saturated with Destruction essence.

What if they did work somewhere else though. Ruin could buy them and take them to Grave. With all the terium Fractal had stacked up around the Shattered Sun dungeon, Ruin could easily make a Spirit dense area for his friends to Fortify in.

Ruin selected everything in his Inventory except the items he’d taken from the Val’dor vault and a few items he thought had significant value and sold it to the vendor. It provided just enough DeN, when added to his savings, to buy one of the cocoons. He could now see how it reacted in the Material Realm on Grave.

Ruin now had a time dilation elixir he could study and a possible way to Fortify his friends to the Divine tier. He wanted to check one last thing before his next task.

Stepping onto the elevator Ruin took it to the sixth floor. Another fancy door provided the entrance to the second Hardening Sigil dungeon in the Dark Tower. He entered and once again received the slew of warnings. He dismissed them until he got to the screen labeled “Time Dilation.”

With a mental finger, he swiped the slider to the right. This time, the maximum time dilation he could purchase, at his current level of fifty, was fifty percent with a cost of one hundred thousand destruction needles.

Even if that cost was per person, it offered a cheaper choice than the options in the store. Of course they would need to deal with Divine level creatures attacking them, which explained the cheaper cost. Ruin would talk with Zylkin to see if there were even better options or dungeons that offered more dilation.

Paying the one hundred thousand DeN, Ruin stood there until he’d gained five minutes of Temporal Offset. Then he exited the dungeon and took the elevator to the first floor. His next stop was the Material Realm. He hadn’t expected to return so soon, but he needed answers only one person could provide.