R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 27

R-a - Volume 4 - Chapter 27 (in editing-v1) 

The cries of several small birds lit the air, giving new light to a dying evening sky. The last gleamings of sunlight began their final descent towards the horizon, heralding the end of the day.

Micheal’s gaze was somber as he stood outside the headquarters of the Rushing River Sect in the dim light, staring down at a small stone tablet.

It was a nameless, unmarked grave, where the remains of Baron Lux’s Clone lay buried.

After showing him the video, the Nirvana Saint had told Micheal everything he knew about Baron Lux and his secret identity as the Beast King. He reported to Micheal how the Beast King’s clone had approached the Church in the first place, as well as the information the Church had gathered through its own records.

There was frighteningly little data to work with, but it painted a sad tale.

Lux was the only name he was known by. His real name was unknown as was his past. Almost nothing was known about Lux, save for the facts he admitted of his own volition.

He had been infected by the Vile King on the First Layer, during the First Wave. Lux, alongside a group of others, had been one of the original climbers to walk alongside the Vile King, albeit not in any close or important role.

It was only after he came to the Second Layer and gained his two most powerful Abilities, his ‘Luckstrider Type’ and his ‘Dark Dominion Ability,’ that he became a premier leader in Constantine’s army. Both Abilities came from a Dark Wraith Inheritance and couldn’t be purchased in the Shop, granting him unique powers that were devastatingly effective.

‘It all makes sense now.’ Micheal nodded silently to himself.

Perhaps the reason so little was known about Lux in the first timeline was because the man, himself, erased any records he could find, to remove himself from history. It was clear he was doing everything he could to resist the Vile King’s influence.

“And now you’re gone.” Micheal crouched down beside the grave, his eyes burning with angry light.

He clenched his right hand tight and took a deep breath, trying to get ahold of his emotions.

He failed.

‘It’s infuriating.’

Lux was someone Micheal had never met, someone that owed nothing to Micheal, or to any other human.

Micheal could not fathom the sheer amount of willpower it would take to resist Constantine’s constant mental manipulation, especially for someone as important to the Vile King’s plans as Baron Lux was, for more than 4 years.

Lux had made a tremendous sacrifice, giving up any last shreds of free will he had and any hope of rescue he might have harbored, to help the people that were destined to kill him.

‘During the first timeline, did he-’ Abruptly, Micheal froze, a rush of thoughts suddenly blazing in his mind.

Rapidly, he connected the dots, his eyes widened as he confirmed the suspicions he'd held before.

‘The existence of the Vile King became widespread on the 3rd Layer… but no one ever knew exactly why.’

People attributed this to Dark Void, and the proliferation of their research.

But as Micheal thought more about it...

‘How did Dark Void first find out about Constantine? How did their network grow so wide so quickly after they broke off from the Purgatory Church and became independent? Why didn’t the Vile King quash them at the start?’

In the back of his head, this fact had always bothered him slightly. Looking back on history, it was one of the many contradictions that had never been adequately addressed.

How did Dark Void discover the Vile King?

Micheal felt blood rush to his ears as he looked down at the blank grave, his heart pounding.

‘It was you.’

His lungs heaved in his chest, his hands clenched into tight fists.

‘You did it.’

A man who had nothing left.

A man who spent his entire existence resisting something that he could never fully overcome.

A man who sacrificed everything for others.

Forgotten by history, time, and humanity.

A silent hero until the end.

Micheal felt like his heart was about to burst through his chest, a mix of emotions violently rioting within him.

‘Damn it.’ He grit his teeth as he took several deep breaths, tasting bile in his throat. Gradually, he regained a semblance of control over himself.

He exhaled sharply through his nose.

“...is there really nothing I can do?” He spoke to himself, already knowing the answer.

The Vile King’s Seeds were permanent.

The only person that could remove them was the Vile King himself, something the man saved only for rare transfers where he set aside a lesser talent for someone who could prove more useful to his cause.

Micheal didn’t even have to consider how Constantine would view Lux. The Vile King would never abandon a man of his caliber.

‘It’s infuriating.’ Micheal’s hands were clenched so tight he drew blood, small drops sliding across his fingernails and skin.

It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t fair and there was nothing Micheal could do about it. For all his knowledge, skill, and power, he was helpless in the face of this challenge.

There simply was nothing he could do.

He was witness to a great man’s heroism and the only thing he could do to pay back that man was to kill him.

‘Well…’ He paused.

‘If I possessed overwhelming power...’ Micheal’s eyes glowed, Master Tier Sword Energy unconsciously fluttering within him in reaction to his emotional state.

‘The Vile King might be a psychopath, but there’s always been a certain logic to his methods.’ The man wouldn’t have gotten as far as he did if he wasn’t an incredible genius.

A normal man would’ve been driven insane from trying to simultaneously manipulate thousands of different people alone. The fact that Constantine was able to do that all while enacting dozens of different plans and plots spoke a great deal about his absurd mental strength. His Abilities might make his work easier, but it was nevertheless an impossible task in anyone else’s hands.

‘He has a method to his madness.’

He wasn’t someone that refused all negotiation.

‘At the end of the day, his only goal is to ensure the survival of humanity.’

As the daylight faded to night, Micheal took one last look at the blank grave before him.

‘If I become an integral part of humanity’s survival, but am impossible to Seed…’

Micheal’s eyes lit up once more, gleaming with gold light.

‘Perhaps history won’t repeat itself. Maybe Lux won’t have to die.’

Micheal stood up, a drop of blood spattering from his injured palms as he turned away from the grave, his eyes blazing with determination.

He was helpless now… but that didn’t mean he always would be.

Overwhelming power… if he had that, then anything was possible.

Micheal turned his gaze to the south, towards the direction of the Soul King’s Inheritance, where Shin and Sophia were currently training.

He then turned towards the castle behind him, where the Nirvana Saint hid alongside Serena, Shadow Captain Sprel, and the other Farians, hunkering down to rest for the journey ahead.

Finally, he looked down at his bloodstained hands, tracing a finger over the jagged cuts.

He took a deep breath.

He exhaled.

‘Let’s go.’

He began to walk towards the Nirvana Saint’s underground bunker.

It was time to start the final act of the Second Layer.

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

The existence of Constantine Lancaster had an enormous impact on the first timeline, in ways both seen and unseen.

Micheal’s hatred for the man and his methods was, in Micheal’s eyes, well deserved.

Constantine was not a good person, by his own admission.

The Vile King’s actions, directly and indirectly, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of humans, all in the name of forcing humanity to grow. He manipulated the minds of innocents and slaughtered millions, ignoring any and all protests against him.

However…

Even Micheal could not deny that Constantine’s actions saw tangible results.

Humanity did grow stronger, desperately so, under his aggression. They were forced to if they wanted to survive, without being given the choice to not. By some metrics, even though humanity perished in the end, the Vile King was a significant part of why they made it as far as they did.

Constantine’s impact on the first timeline was immense.

And now… in the second timeline…

The Vile King had pulled the majority of his forces out of the Second Layer.

His mere presence had a huge impact on the course of history…

And, thus, so too did his absence.

In the first timeline, the Vile King stoked the tensions between races. He manipulated everything from behind the scenes, weakening the other Races to prevent humanity from being overwhelmed entirely. The Great War began when Constantine directly attacked the Six Lords when they were raiding the Sanctum.

This was the only tidbit of history Micheal knew about when it came to the start of the Great War, gathered from the scattered records of history.

He knew how the Great War started. He knew where it started. He even knew when it started and why it started.

However… if there was one thing he didn’t know…

It was the reason why the Vile King chose that exact moment to start the war.

The Sanctum Ambush, as it came to be known, was an attack that dragged on and on for days and ended without fanfare, neither side obtaining a clear victory. For someone of Constantine’s caliber, the fact that he started a public battle that he couldn’t finish was, in and of itself, unusual. The Vile King was always one to stick to the shadows rather than to serve direct confrontations.

Why did he launch his attack then, destroying the Sanctum and clashing directly with the Six Lords?

The Six Lords were going to attempt to destroy humanity either way, regardless of Constantine's actions. The Vile King knew that, and could have planned his ambush at any other point. 

Micheal knew Constantine’s overarching reasons and goals… but the reasons for the exact incident that set off the Great War was something he didn’t know.

No one knew why, save for the Vile King himself.

Like the flap of a butterfly’s wings setting off a breeze that grows into a great storm, this small oversight had ramifications far beyond what Micheal, or anyone else, could have ever expected.

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

Far from Micheal’s location existed an underground room full of glowing white pillars. Each monument was bedazzled with shining, golden symbols that flickered brightly, giving off small sparks of light.

At the center of this odd room sat seven ornate sarcophaguses, carved with images of clashing bolts of lighting. Each of these coffins was larger and wider, holding the body of a bipedal being that stood at least half a meter taller than the average human.

The air was still and calm inside the sealed chamber, unmoving after hundreds and hundreds of years.

Abruptly, a loud, rumbling echo shook the room. Layers of dust cascaded into the air, shuddering as the southern wall of the chamber trembled.

Moments later…

The wall exploded, a blue beam of light rocketing through it and colliding with several of the pillars. The explosion sent up a storm of dust and debris, coating the air in murky grey.

After a few seconds, a figure emerged from the newly formed hole in the wall, wielding a large, exotic looking blue wand.

“Finally…” The figure threw aside the Plasmoiden Wand he had used to break into the chamber, an expensive Artifact that could only be purchased through the Shop.

“After all these years… we can begin the body transfer.”

The figure waved his hand to the side, the simple movement imbued with such force that it scattered the cloud of dust in an instant, revealing his identity.

A man with a well-weathered appearance alongside a large, white beard and a tan, lined face that looked slightly at odds with his bulky, muscular body. He was dressed in a simple white robe with a black, diagonal stitching line that stretched from his right shoulder to his left hip.

Thunderfist, the First Lord, a Dark Wraith disguised as a Byren, and the leader of the Divine Might Sect.

Thunderfist strode forward towards the stone coffins placed at the center of the room. The way he walked was unique, every step he took seeming to cover a dozen steps in an instant. It looked as if he was walking slowly, yet he moved extremely quickly.

Behind Thunderfist, several other figures began to file into the room, entering through the same hole Thunderfist had formed in the wall.

The First Lord arrived next to the sarcophaguses in a heartbeat, resting one of his bronzed hands atop it.

He flicked his wrist.

Immediately, the top of the coffin shattered as it was forcibly ripped away. A spurt of golden symbols fluttered in the air and then dissipated, destroyed by the power behind Thunderfist’s movements.

With the sarcophagus cover gone, the body that lay within it was revealed.

Golden skin that shined with a bronze hue, silver hair that glowed dimly, a muscular, nigh perfectly built humanoid body…

Faint motes of light fluttered off the still remains, shimmering in the air. The light gave off a pure, healing sensation that filled one with a sense of awe just by seeing it…

Like the light of a God.

Various emotions flashed in Thunderfist’s eyes as he stared down at the perfectly-preserved corpse. The powerful Master clenched his fists, a flash of yellow light glowing off them as he studied the body.

He looked up from the body, back at the others that had entered the room after him.

And then, he began to smile.

.