Divine Apostasy Book 11 - Chapter 11

[Author's Note: As I said in the update there is a lot of info dumping in this chapter, and I'm not sure how to fix it yet.]

Chapter 11

Ruin returned to his body and found himself wearing the items he’d equipped. He expected to find them scattered across the ground, not reflecting exactly how he'd dressed in the vault. He wondered what that looked like to someone watching his physical body and made a note to have Rami observe him next time.

Vex was still flying around somewhere and not visible to Ruin, so he opened his Display and accessed the Inheritance tab.

As if detecting Ruin's confusion, a pop-up appeared, asking if he would like to see an informational overview of the display.

Ruin immediately chose "yes," and a new pop-up appeared.

Note: Additional information provided based on current class.

All creatures in the Destruction Realm can utilize unstructured destruction essence to level themselves. This route provides a path to below-average power and is the most common progression path.

Some entities can form a Core of destruction essence, as their spiritual network is mature enough to support such concentrated power. This path leads to above-average power, and when coupled with common leveling, is a formidable combination.

Like the ability to manipulate unstructured destruction essence, every creature in the Destruction Realm can reach greatness by unlocking the power of their blood.

This is achieved by locating one of the eight Arrays that exist within every inhabitant of the Destruction Realm. Each of these eight Arrays contains eight nodes. These 64 nodes are the path to ultimate power.

Locating these nodes, or the Arrays that contain them, is exceedingly difficult. Even when found, opening a node will be beyond many citizens’ capabilities.

Most powerful entities within the Destruction Realm are blessed with one or two open nodes. Usually, these nodes are already filled with a power passed down via an Inheritance. Even a single opened node will unlock the blood’s magic, providing significant power. Therefore, it is every inhabitant’s desire to do this, although most fail.

What makes the noble houses of the Destruction Realm so powerful is that their bloodline Inheritance unlocks a complete Heritage, which exposes an Array with eight open nodes. Only ancient houses with pure bloodlines reaching back to the original families possess this incredible benefit.

There are two other methods to unlock a complete Array. The first is to wear one of the eight Bands of Authority associated with the legendary spires.

Little is known about these bands, as they are held by the Destruction Realm's most powerful families, and even in these families, only the family leader has this benefit. It is believed that anyone who wears a band, regardless of the duration, will have an Array unlocked.

The second alternative is to gain access to a Class that provides Array or node benefits. Most mythical classes unlock a node, and it is believed mythical-mythical classes unlock an Array. The Destruction Emperor, therefore, is a being with three unlocked Arrays: one from their lineage, one from their Band of Authority, and one from their Class.

The Destruction Emperor, with his three opened Arrays and twenty-four opened nodes, is the absolute pinnacle of power. Every node opened makes the next node harder to unlock, and this difficulty is further increased with every opened Array. No entity in living memory has ever surpassed twenty-four open nodes, although there are legends from the distant past that allude to such a possibility.

Ruin read the information a second time and then closed the pop-up. This might explain what had happened to Lylan. If her bloodline had an open node, which sounded like what she'd told him, and the interaction with the hydra and whatever else happened had filled that node with something that had given her the power she now wielded.

Now that Ruin had a much better understanding of how this blood magic worked, he studied the information on the Inheritance Tab.

The Display pictured his Saraph body with four wings extended. Eight large circles surrounded the figure. Inside each of these circles, eight smaller circles were visible, also arranged in a ring.

When Ruin concentrated on the topmost circle, which he now understood was an Array, a pop-up appeared that read:

Val’dor Inheritance
The Val’dor Inheritance contains a powerful lineage, providing a completely opened Array free from an associated Heritage. This allows the Val’dor family to assign an appropriate Heritage to provide the most benefit to the family. This flexibility makes the Val’dor family incredibly resilient and powerful. Great care should be taken with assigning the first node, as the Array will assimilate the associated Heritage permanently.

Ruin dismissed the pop-up, and the Array expanded, allowing more details to become visible.

In the center of the Array of eight nodes was a description:

Heritage of Fate

The first node of the eight had a silver-colored gem inside it, while the rest of the nodes remained unfilled. When Ruin concentrated on the gem-filled-node, a description appeared:

Name: Fate’s Balance
Compatible Heritages: Destiny, Luck, Balance, Fortune, Fate, Manipulation
Tier: Gem
Description: This ultra-rare ability allows one to manipulate the strands of fate, altering the trajectory of events both great and small. Skewing the balance of luck too long will cause disastrous consequences.
Effect (Triggered): Fate Weaver - Collect and distribute the accumulated fate of your enemies.
Effect (Triggered): Lucky Streak - Borrow a percentage of the pooled luck for personal use based on level.

Ruin dismissed the information with mixed emotions. On one hand, he felt disappointed that he never had the opportunity to choose the theme of his opened Array. On the other hand, it had absorbed Hamma’s luck-based blessing, which had turned into something incredibly powerful.

In reality, possessing a Heritage around fate could have amazing benefits, and since he remained incredibly ignorant about all these things, having it assigned already would prevent him from accidentally locking his opened Array into something like Heritage of Sand or some other useless theme.

Ruin dismissed the Array and moved to the next one. A new pop-up appeared:

Band of Remembrance
The Band of Remembrance is one of the eight artifacts associated with the eight spires that create the boundaries of the Destruction Realm. Little is known about the Heritages associated with the bands, as they are closely guarded secrets of the noble families who possess them. Even when considering your current Class, additional information is not available.

Ruin dismissed the pop-up, and the second Array filled his vision.

In the middle of the eight open nodes, the Array’s Heritage was displayed:

Heritage of Remembrance

When Ruin focused on the name, more information appeared.

The Spire of Remembrance stands as the cornerstone of all knowledge among the eight spires. Unlike the others, which focus on singular, powerful abilities, the Spire of Remembrance is the guardian of all Heritages, ensuring that no power, technique, or piece of history is lost to time. It serves as a sanctuary of collective memory.

Those who bear the Heritage of Remembrance are entrusted with safeguarding this knowledge, ensuring that the legacy of the spires lives on through every generation. The Spire of Remembrance has the unique ability to access and unify the powers of all Heritages, making it both the most versatile and vital among the eight spires. It serves as a reminder that the past must never be forgotten and that only by remembering can the future be safeguarded.

Ruin dismissed the pop-up thoughtfully. This Heritage seemed incredibly powerful and was definitely aligned with his natural inclinations regarding books and knowledge. He wondered if that had anything to do with his ability to wear the band.

Unlike the Heritage of Fate, the first node in this Array remained empty. When Ruin concentrated on this empty node, a new pop-up appeared:

Visit one of the eight spires and use the Remembrance Band of Authority to extract a Gem of Remembrance. Place this Gem of Remembrance into an open node to activate it.

Ruin’s enthusiasm dropped a little. While the Remembrance Heritage was certainly powerful, he had to visit each of the spires to gain abilities. If the previous information about those spires creating the boundaries of the Destruction Realm was accurate, visiting them all seemed impossible.

Not only that, but the other seven Band of Authority wearers would likely never let Ruin approach their spire, especially if they knew what the Band of Remembrance did. If he had to guess, despite the power of this Heritage, the Val’dor family had likely never taken advantage of it.

And if that was the case, it would’ve left them terribly disadvantaged against the other bands that had powerful abilities from the start. In reality, all this band did, by opening up eight nodes, was make the possibility of opening additional nodes almost impossible, if he understood the progressively harder nature of opening nodes.

Ruin felt more disappointed the more he thought about it, and he moved on to the third opened Array.

The third Array came into focus, and Ruin studied the assigned Heritage.

Heritage of Destruction
The Heritage of Destruction is a unique and unparalleled Class bestowed exclusively upon the Emperor of the Destruction Realm. It grants complete dominion over the forces of ruin, decay, and entropy that define the realm itself.

This Heritage taps into the very essence of destruction, allowing the Emperor to wield vast, reality-shattering powers that can unmake entire structures, summon devastating storms of energy, and command the entities that reside in the Destruction Realm with absolute authority. The Emperor is not merely a ruler but the embodiment of chaos and annihilation, capable of unraveling both physical and metaphysical constructs at will.

This Heritage ignores the normal penalty experienced when adding a shard, fragment, or gem of a differing Heritage. On the contrary, the Heritage of Destruction multiplies the benefits of any Heritage item placed in one of its nodes.

Those who carry the Heritage of Destruction are feared not just for their immense power but for their intimate connection to the very forces that threaten the existence of all things.

Ruin stared at the description and read it another three times. A knot formed in his stomach, and he felt a little nauseous. The Class sounded better than awesome. It was probably the most powerful Class description he’d ever read.

The problem, of course, was that Ruin wasn’t supposed to have this Class. It was unique, and the real Destruction Realm already had an Emperor, probably one that had possessed this Class for eons. Only now did Ruin get a sense of how powerful this being would be, and if Varthon was correct, the real Destruction Emperor might already know of Ruin’s existence and be searching for him.

From the text, it appeared placing Legacy Shards of the wrong Heritage in an Array reduced their effectiveness, but the Destruction Heritage ignored that penalty and instead amplified the ability. It would allow one to create a very diverse and powerful Heritage by taking the best abilities regardless of the source.

One thing Ruin needed to do was find out the consequences of removing a Legacy Shard from a node. If the penalties for that were severe, it would severely limit how much he could use these Heritages until he gathered more information.

Ruin closed the Heritage of Destruction and opened the fourth Array. For the first time, only one node had been opened, and the other seven remained closed. One of the previous informational pop-ups had stated anything past twenty-four nodes was thought impossible, but here he was staring at his twenty-fifth opened node.

Even more confusing was the Heritage it represented, the description, and the contents of the first node.

Heritage of the Void
Unknown Heritage

How could the system that ran all this assign Ruin a Heritage that it didn’t recognize?

The ability in the first node didn’t make much sense either.

Name: Voidwalker
Compatible Heritage: None
Tier: Gem
Description: Through an unknown mechanism, the Void has seeped into your personal essence without causing fatal damage.
Effect (Passive): Tolerance of the Void proportional to level.
Effect (Triggered): Void Purge - Once per day, vent the accumulated Void energies from your body in an area of effect with a radius in feet equal to level.

The node ability had obviously occurred because of Ruin’s bond with Rami. She’d gained Void abilities from her father, and at least part of those abilities had contaminated Ruin as well. The system didn’t even recognize the Heritage, so how did he end up with a gem in the node, and how would he gather more?

A few things were clear to Ruin. Varthon had not hidden his distaste that Rami had bonded with a human. The Void Wyrm considered Rami’s value to be so great that no human could ever be worthy of her. He’d also made a big deal about her Void abilities being incomprehensibly rare.

How would the Void Wyrm react, then, if he ever learned Ruin had absorbed some of those same abilities?