Volume 5 – Chapter 9 (in-editing v2)

Volume 5 – Chapter 9

.

Morning came without incident.

Micheal frowned as he knelt down, resting for a few moments atop the peak of the Giant’s Axehead.

The air was cold and frozen, with a harsh breeze blowing from the east. Micheal absently shifted a large grey cloak around his shoulders, his attention split between scanning his surroundings and thinking about the future.

“It’s quiet.” He whispered slowly, his words dying in the breeze.

'Too quiet.'

They had safely setup camp inside a minor crevice hidden in the Giant’s Axehead, gone to sleep, and woken up – all without encountering even the slightest hint of danger.

‘Jay sol Arget knows we’re coming for him.’ It was the only thing that made sense.

Even now, his supernatural instincts were blaring, warning him that something was wrong… a feeling he’d sensed ever since they had been ambushed. The general feeling of ‘wrongness’ never faded, no matter how many precautions he took.

“Why hasn’t he struck again?”

It bothered him, more than he was willing to admit.

He had never faced an Endwalker in combat or even seen one, but they sounded nightmarishly difficult to handle.

The fact that Jay sol Arget managed to kill Aaron Bartram in the original timeline, a human that was famous for being unkillable, was already a cause for concern.

After a few moments thought, Micheal let out a sigh, staring out into the distance as the cold mountain air washed over him.

“I’ll handle it when it comes up.” Excessive worry would get him nowhere.

A few moments passed before a loud thud caught his attention.

“Ready to go?” Shin popped into existence next to Micheal, dressed in identical drably colored clothes.

“Yeah.” Micheal got to his feet, his grey cloak billowing in the wind.  

“Let’s go.”

.. .. .. .. .. ..

Morning faded into midmorning, and midmorning into noon.

Now that he recognized where they were, Micheal actively directed Shin’s teleportation. They travelled high up in the air, out of the line of sight of most inhabitants on the Third Layer. The air was frigid, but both of them had superhuman physiques, letting them ignore the cold with relative ease.

As they traversed the Atlas Duchy proper, the lands beneath them rapidly transformed. Now, it was common to find floating islands lush with greenery and, at least to some degree, teeming with life.

Small herds of Volpa, greyish black deer that could jump enormous heights, could be seen moving from floating island to island, never resting in one place for too long. Dark blue Ayeors, large birds that preyed upon squirrel-like Glyphers and fast-moving, rabbit-like Coras, flew high in the sky, occasionally passing near Micheal and Shin as they paused between teleports.

As they moved through the Inner Ringlands, a multitude of life unfolded beneath them, hardy creatures that had adapted to survival on the Third Layer over tens of thousands of years.

They didn’t spot any Void Predators, but that was to be expected. Despite their fearsome reputation, the monstrous creatures were a rare sight, often travelling on the underside of floating islands to remain hidden as they hunted.

They also passed near a few heavily walled villages – while many inhabitants of the Third Layer lived within the safety of massive City-States, there were many beings who lacked the riches and wealth necessary to afford such safety.

These Void Natives lived within small, isolated villages, surrounded with large, if crudely built, walls. There were dozens of these communities dotted throughout the Atlas Duchy, filled with mostly a mix of hunter-gatherers and Gorka farmers. Gorka was a staple food similar to corn that existed on the Third Layer, a crop that absorbed energy in the air instead of relying upon sunlight for growth.

Outsiders, a term given to all the Climbers that arrived on the Third Layer, sometimes sought refuge in these villages, or formed their own, making use of the many abandoned villages left behind when Void Predators went on a rampage. They passed by several ruins over the course of day, including a few where they could just faintly make out activity.

It was nothing compared to how busy the Third Layer would become during the Rush, but it still foreshadowed what was yet to come.

Micheal and Shin skipped past every single village and City-State, ruined or not, leaving a wide berth between themselves and anyone else. They soared through the sky, constantly teleporting over and over again.

On occasion, they spotted various travelers moving from island to island. Some were merchants making their way through using Void Boats, special ships that floated on invisible currents of energy emitted by the Void, while others were mercenaries moving from one village to another on foot. He even spotted a few Knights, clad in dark metal armor, moving out on patrol.

The Third Layer was a world constantly at war, as Void Nobles fought for control of key City-States. Mercenaries and Knights were an all-too-common sight in all corners of the world.

Finally, as noon began to wane…

They made progress.

“Shin, stop us here!”

Micheal’s voice echoed out as the world twisted around him. A split second later, Micheal landed lightly on the surface of a large, cracked boulder, resting on a small floating island. Shin landed right next to him, letting go of Micheal’s shoulder as they touched down.

“This…” Micheal’s voice dropped as he stared at the scene before him.

“…isn’t good.”

What lay before him was utter devastation.

An enormous, gaping hole in what once was a small-to-decent sized floating island. Large, melted blocks of rock wobbled in the air, floating dismally above the Void. The few still standing trees on the outer edge of the island had been stripped clean of their leaves.

And then, around this island was... nothing.

Hundreds and hundreds of meters of empty space, an unnaturally large hole isolating this central island from its surroundings.

“Are you sure this is where our guy is?” Shin asked as he leaned forward, staring at the shattered island with interest.

“It was.” Micheal frowned.

“It’s the same attack that hit us a few days ago.”

Faintly, in the air, Micheal could sense remnants of the same strange energy that he had felt when they had been ambushed. A feeling that touched upon the Temporal scars left upon his Soul, and the Magic Circles formed by the Echoes of the Eternal Mana Breathing Method.

An attack sent backwards in time.

“Damn.” Micheal swore quietly as he jumped up into the air, silky metal threads snaking into the stone on one edge of the shattered island from his glove. He pulled himself towards that edge, landing on the cracked earth in one smooth motion. The impact sent a few smaller chunks of stone free, floating out into nothingness.

“He’s not here.”

They had reached the coast of the Empty Sea around 2 hours ago.

After they arrived, they had spent the better part of that 2 hours searching the area, maneuvering around as they looked from region to region, trying to track down Bastien’s hideaway.

While Micheal didn’t know Bastien’s exact location, he knew it was near a large hill-like floating island that was covered in enormous scars left behind by the Sundering Swordmaster as he taught his disciples.

They had just found that hill a few minutes ago, and shortly after, arrived here, where an unnaturally large hole in the landscape of floating islands had caught his attention.

“He was also ambushed… but he managed to block part of the attack.”

Micheal knelt down in the dirt, reaching down and grasping a chunk of wood. It was a broken piece from a larger plank, part of the ruins of a small hut located at the edge of what was left on this island. Bits of white powder coated the edge of the wood, drifting down off it.

With an almost silent ‘woosh,’ Shin appeared next to Micheal, kneeling down on his left.

As the duo started to search through the rubble, Micheal caught sight of something at the edge of his vision.

“What do we have here?” He stood up, shambling over to a spot a few meters from where he had landed.

There was a piece of parchment, folded in half and tucked beneath a fist-sized rock. It was fairly hidden away, with only a tiny edge of paper sticking out, caught by his enhanced senses.

He picked up the rock and pulled the parchment out, unfolding it neatly to unveil…

A message, written in code.

“Is that Morse code?” Shin asked, reading the message over Micheal’s shoulder.

“Yeah, it is. Give me a moment, I’ll translate it.”

When Humanity was gifted the Shop, it gave them the ability to translate all spoken languages, and the power to decipher almost all human-based written languages.

This didn’t, however, mean that nothing could be written in code.

Morse code was one of several common methods used to disguise information in a way that few humans would understand. While Morse code itself wasn’t exactly a lost language, it was still uncommon enough that information left in this form could remain relatively secure, especially from non-Human entities.

Micheal quickly read through the lines and dots that made up the message, ignoring Shin’s look of disbelief.

“Since when did you know Morse Code? Did you secretly become a Boy Scout when I wasn’t looking?”  

Micheal continued ignoring Shin as he spoke the message aloud.

“Regroup at Axellion, Wyden Inn – South Gate. Invisible Monster – do not engage. Use flour to mark – only half effective.”

The hastily scribbled document was coated in the same white powder, flour, presumably, that he’d found on the wood from before.

“Invisible.” Shin repeated, his voice drawn as all levity fled him.

Micheal nodded grimly.

“It’s him.”

Jay sol Arget – an Endwalker. ‘Invisible Monster’ was an apt description.

“He’s hunting down Bastien.” Micheal’s eyes tightened.

This didn’t happen in the first timeline.

‘My actions must have affected the future, enough to make Bastien a threat.’

“Isn’t this weird? How did he get time to leave a note if he’s being hunted?” Shin brought up a salient point. Micheal paused as he considered Shin’s words.

“…you’re not wrong.” Micheal conceded as he focused, trying to consider every possible situation, every outcome he might face.

“It is weird, but it’s not impossible. Bastien’s a Grandmaster, his fine-body control should be more than enough to let him multi-task writing a note.” It was an astute judgement, based on his own experience as a Grandmaster. It should be well within the man's capabilities.

‘Using flour to mark the Endwalker… that’s a solid idea.’ The note said it only half-worked, but Micheal still filed the idea away, adding it to his mental bank of counters he could prepare for his inevitable clash with the Titled Deity.

“Hmm…” Micheal’s mind raced as he continued to think.

“This feels… almost… too neat.” He muttered, speaking aloud what was bothering him.

Everything fit together perfectly… it almost felt like a trap.

‘Am I being paranoid?’ He paused for a moment, seriously considering the thought.

‘No.’ He shook his head.

He was facing a Titled Deity. He needed to treat every situation like it was the worst-case scenario.

Paranoia was how you survived in the 7 Layers.

“Let’s go.” He tucked the note back under the rock, leaving it for any of Bastien’s surviving disciples to find.

“Where to?” Shin queried, lazily teleporting right next to Micheal, instead of walking a few feet.

“Even if this is a trap, we have no choice but to spring it.” Micheal responded, giving Shin a grim nod.

“Look alive, we might be flying hot when we arrive. Be ready to retreat in an instant.”

Shin nodded back.

“Take us directly to Axellion. This way.” The seat of power of the Atlas Duchy awaited them.

“Already on it, chief!” Shin yelled as he grabbed ahold of Micheal’s shoulder and began to teleport them away.

It took them only 36 minutes to reach the massive City-State from their current location.

And it was there, the moment they arrived, that Micheal was greeted with one last surprise…

Screams and yells filled the air, as warbling explosions shook the sky. Enormous chunks of rock and wall were blasted outward as an enormous monstrosity went on a rampage.

“This...” Micheal whispered, a hint of awe finding its way into his voice as he stared at the enormous creature looming in the distance.

'This never happened before.' 

“It's an Apex attack.”

.