R-a - Volume 3 - Chapter 12

R-a Chapter 170 (In editing-v1)

A cool, soothing sensation enveloped Micheal, as if he had just jumped into a pool of slightly chilled water. This feeling washed into his mind, refreshing and relaxing him in a way that was difficult to describe in words. His eyes were closed and he was no longer breathing, yet his body felt healthy and hale.

As Micheal felt all of this, he kept his mind alert, examining each and every detail that he encountered. It was a very strange sensation, as if he was entering into a dream-like state.

Just moments later, that cool sensation vanished and his breathing came back. The world returned to normal as his feet hit a solid surface, causing him to stumble slightly before catching himself.

Micheal blinked as he cleared his vision, looking around at where he had landed.

He was at the base of a mountain. A large, grassy plain spread out around this large mountain, dotted with a few trees on occasion. Warm sunlight beat down overhead, the mid-morning light falling upon Micheal’s eyes.

The mountain itself was decently large, at least as tall as some of the biggest mountains of Earth. Micheal could see a faint ring of clouds surrounding the top of the mountain, giving it a kind of ethereal quality, as if Gods lived there.

On this mountain, Micheal could faintly make out a collection of buildings built up into the face of the mountain. A long, straight path of stairs led up to these buildings, scaling halfway up the mountain. Hundreds of figures were currently moving up this stair path in the distance, scurrying upwards in a hurry.

Just a few minutes before this, Micheal had taken Simone to the side to have an in-depth conversation, one where he explained what he needed of her and how everything would work. Eventually, she’d agreed to his plans, but only on the condition that he cured her and her men of their debilitating condition first.

It was a reasonable demand. They had only known each other a brief amount of time, gaining anyone’s trust was bound to be difficult in such a short period. In addition, their relationship had started off with Micheal being prepared to kill her if need be, not exactly the best impression.

Micheal had no reason to deny her demand, and so their agreement was struck.

It was a relationship based on equal exchange. Unlike Micheal’s friendship with Shin and Sophia, his alliance with Simone was strictly business. Apart from her current misfortune, Simone didn’t have a tragic backstory or a secret past that plagued her. She was calculating, but honest, and made her stance clear to Micheal, with no surprises.

Now, all Micheal needed to do was find some Contract Seals and find a way to cure the still-secret Withering Snow Poison. After that, with a little bit more guidance from him, he would be well on his way to creating the elite proxy force that he would need later.

Conveniently enough, and the entire reason Micheal had proposed this plan in the first place, both of those things could be found here in the Fallen Deity's Inheritance.

And after that conversation, one thing led to another. Micheal gave Simone and her crew some detailed instructions on what the three doorways meant, and what the challenges behind the ‘Knight’ door would be. The tips he gave were invaluable, clues picked up from the future that would save Simone and her team an immense amount of time and effort.

And while the Rury Group was making their preparations to challenge the ‘Knight’ door in various waves, Micheal moved all the way over past the ‘Lord’ door to the ‘King’ door.

And then, without any dramatic flair, he challenged it immediately. He rested his hand directly on the glowing symbol and injected some of his ‘Ki’ into it, activating the ancient Inheritance ground.

And that was how he ended up here.

“Panho! We gotta hurry!” A boy’s voice called out from behind Micheal, catching his attention. Micheal turned around, his eyes narrowing slightly.

A teenager was jogging over towards Micheal, waving frantically. He looked to be around 15 or 16 years old, a few years younger than Micheal’s physical age. He was wearing a simple leather tunic and a plain shirt, with a longsword strapped to his waist.

At first glance, he looked very ordinary, like a human from before the modern era, where people fought with swords and not guns. However, when Micheal looked closer…

Golden skin that shined with a bronze hue, silver hair that glowed faintly, a handsome, strong appearance boosted by a naturally muscular body despite his younger age…

As he saw this, Micheal realized something that made his face twitch, involuntary rage forcing its way into his heart.

This teenager was not a human.

Nor was he a Farian, a Byren, or any of the other races that inhabited the Second Layer.

He was a Deity.

Specifically, a Toren, of the Toren Tribe, one of the 12 Tribes of Deities.

The 12 Tribes of Deities all looked different, based on which Tribe each Deity was from. The Tribe that had wiped out humanity, in the end, were the blue-skinned Morians that, while humanoid, looked very different compared to a regular human. Torens, on the other hand, looked very similar to normal humans.

Each Toren was naturally strong, born with strength that vastly surpassed a regular human. Of all of the 12 Tribes, the Torens were the Tribe that was most physically resilient, born with skin that could easily block bullets. Each and every member of the Toren Tribe was basically a superhuman that could live for thousands of years without any training whatsoever.

As with all of the Tribes, one of the major ‘downsides’ to their species was the difficulty Torens faced in conceiving offspring. As a result of that, despite their longevity, the population of their race was very limited in scope.

This was the first Deity Micheal had seen since he came back to the past.

Killing intent flowed in Micheal’s body and Soul, a colossal wave of pure animosity that threatened to jump out from his body and slam into the teenager in a heartbeat. These feelings were built into the very fiber of his being, borne from the blood shed by those he cared for, offered up at the altar of war in sacrifices to stop the rampage of Gods.

‘Control.’ A single thought reined in Micheal’s overwhelming emotions as he swept back that killing intent with the mastered discipline of a Swordmaster.

In the meantime, the teenager flinched backwards and almost fell down, his eyes widening in surprisingly realistic shock. After a few seconds, however, he blinked and looked around in confusion, as if he wasn’t quite sure what had happened.

He quickly recovered as he turned his focus back to Micheal, renewing his earlier speech.

“The Disciple Selection Test is about to begin! Come on, Panho! I’m going up ahead!” The teenager rushed off, his short silver hair ruffling as he began to sprint up the stairs that led up the mountain.

Micheal watched him go, blinking slowly as he took a couple of seconds to calm down.

‘What is wrong with me?’ He frowned as he began to jog after the teenager, his mouth drawn into a thin line. To show bloodlust to a clearly innocent teenager, even if that boy was a member of a race that had caused him unending pain…

It was very unlike him, even if that teenager was a fake 'dream' creation.

His emotions had become more and more volatile ever since he arrived here on the Second Layer. He found it difficult to keep his mental state, feeling as if he wasn’t in complete control of himself. Not to the point where it would result in any serious lapse… but to the point where it was noticeable to him.

Feelings like this were something he had not felt in a very, very long time.

He knew the reason, of course. He wasn’t an idiot. Even if he didn’t want to face the issue head-on, the fact that his heart ached told him the truth of the situation.

It had to be because of her.

Isabelle Solara.

She was alive once more.

He sighed and shook his head, focusing back on the immediate present.

His arrival at the base of a mountain, the fact that he had been greeted by a young Toren, everything thus far had occurred exactly how Micheal had heard it should. This meant, for certain, that he was successfully taking the King’s Challenge.

The Knight’s Challenge, the Lord’s Challenge, and the King’s Challenge. Each of these three ‘Challenges’ were locked behind a different door. Once you completed one challenge, you were never allowed to complete another one.

In their own way, these Challenges served as the ‘filters’ that Yvvtal had placed into his Inheritance.

The Knight’s Challenge was very difficult to complete. Even with the in-depth tips and tricks Micheal gave to Simone, things that practically laid out every hard part of the Challenge, it would take weeks, at the minimum, for her entire group to pass it, and the risk of death was still present.

Even for Simone, the most talented of her group, it should take her, at the bare minimum, several days and might come out injured. The power she and her group had the potential to gain was great, but the risks, even with Micheal’s help, were still there.

If they hadn’t had the secrets Micheal knew to make everything easier, it would take her months to complete and many of her warriors would almost certainly die.

Completing it would provide one with ample rewards, enough to greatly boost an average human's strength.

Past the Knight’s Challenge was the Lord’s Challenge.

The Lord’s Challenge was vastly more difficult than the Knight’s Challenge, and provided vastly better rewards. However, even with Micheal’s guidance and help, he had no confidence that anyone from Simone’s group would be able to complete the Challenge.

He wasn’t knocking them, not entirely. Simone did seem to be pretty talented and strong-willed, definitely within the upper echelon of humanity.

However, these Challenges… they weren’t designed for humans.

They were designed for Deities.

Taking the Lord’s Challenge would’ve been suicide for Simone.

And as for the King’s Challenge…

It was unfathomably difficult for a human being to complete.

In fact, there were only two other humans that Micheal knew of that managed to barely complete the King’s Challenge.

Part of this was because many of the supremely talented First Wavers had already moved past the Second Layer before the Fallen Deity’s Inheritance appeared. The First Wave was famed for the disproportionate number of super experts found within it. In addition, the Fallen Deity’s Inheritance wasn’t open long enough to allow for billions of humans to try it.

Still… hundreds of thousands of humans, if not millions, did manage to make the trip here, all in an attempt to pass these infamous Challenges.

And of those huge swathes of talented warriors, a mere two humans passed the King’s Challenge.

Baron Fortuna of the Four Barons and the Nirvana Saint of the Purgatory Church.

No one else.

Plenty of people died trying to attempt it, eventually leading to the King’s Challenge becoming a taboo that was avoided, until the eventual disappearance of the Fallen Deity’s Inheritance. But other than those two souls, no one else ever passed, not that was publicly known.

Micheal didn’t find that very surprising. He snorted at the thought as he began to sprint up the stairs, his eyes studying the surroundings.

The first part of the King’s Challenge was as he’d heard.

You were transported to a mountain and forced to take part in a Disciple Selection Test. If you managed to complete the Disciple Selection Test, you would be transported to a ‘Newcomer’s Tournament,’ where you would compete with other new disciples for victory.

That was the complete ‘Challenge.’

All in all, it was a fairly standard occurrence for the Second Layer.

This was an entire planet dominated by martial arts. Martial art fighting competitions were a dime a dozen, and there were actual ‘Disciple Selection Tests’ all the time, though they often went by different names.

Micheal had, thus far, managed to avoid interacting with the mainstream society of the Second Layer. He’d spoke with some humans and had contact with a single Camp, but nothing else beyond that. The only Byren he’d seen was one of the guards stationed to work with (and possibly spy on) humanity.

As such, his first real welcome to the society of the Second Layer was happening in a place where it wasn’t even real.

Micheal’s lungs burned as he continued to sprint up the stairs, racing after the Toren. He now moved as quickly as possible behind the teenager, flashing up the stairs in an instant. Each step felt rough beneath his feet, the enhanced gravity of the Second Layer ever-present here, even in this dreamworld Challenge.

This was all part of the test, according to what he knew. He needed to show an eagerness to take the test, to show a thirst for power, for whatever reasons he might have, and a refusal to give up or show weakness.

And, given his rather driving mission in this life, it wasn’t hard to come up with all of that.

As he scaled the mountain, he passed by dozens of figures. He could vaguely make out blips of golden skin or flashes of silver hair, clueing him in to the fact that he was sprinting past dozens of Torens.

He didn’t let that distract him as he continued to race forward.

His body, here in the King’s Challenge, was not the exact same as his normal body. There were certain subtle differences to it, but at the same time, many similarities.

For example, his Silk Strider Glove was nowhere to be seen. However, his body and face still had the slightly leaner build he’d gained ever since he’d appeared on the Second Layer, showing that his build and body were still the same.

A sheen of sweat covered his forehead as he continued to struggle upwards. He was about a quarter of the way up the mountain, and roughly halfway to his final destination. If he wanted to, he could bring out his Life Orbs and use them to fly up, still able to sense the connection with those tools.

Doing that, however, would obviously defeat the purpose of the challenge.

Thus, Micheal continued to persevere. The pain and exhaustion that tried to sweep past his mind bounced off a stiff wall of determination that even the fiercest cannons could not shatter. Pain like this was nothing to Micheal but a shadow of his own future practice.

Finally, after several long moments of frantic running, cool mountain air wafted over his body, bringing with it the scents of nature and the woodlands, a refreshing smell that cleared Micheal’s mind. He had almost reached the location of the Disciple Selection Test and the midway point up the mountain, the ‘Main Courtyard.’

“We’re almost there, Panho! Come on!” The nameless teenager needlessly reminded Micheal of what he already knew as he raced up a couple more sets of stairs, just barely leaving Micheal’s sight. No matter how fast Micheal ran, he had been completely unable to pass by the teenager.

Several stern-looking Toren guards glanced at Micheal, standing watch on the top of the stairs as he emerged. They were dressed in relaxed leather armor and wielded large spears or blades in their hands rather casually.

Behind them, a set of grand courtyards and large buildings spread out, built into the rocky face of the mountain. Micheal’s eyes flicked up to them, and then back behind him for a split moment as he realized something.

The groups of Torens moving up and down the stairs below looked more like NPC’s in a video game than anything else, moving rather aimlessly, as if they had just been placed there to fill the space.

‘They probably had, actually.’ Micheal thought, nodding slightly. This entire dreamworld vision was, after all, fabricated with some strange type of magic. Perhaps those groups had been intended to add a feeling of pressure.

He didn’t hesitate as he followed right after the nameless teenager, headed towards the biggest courtyard in sight. As he followed, he mentally began to prepare himself.

For what came next, he needed to do everything exactly how he had planned it out in his head. A single mistake could cost him dearly.

For, Yvvtal’s Inheritance had a singular purpose.

And it was that singular purpose that Micheal was going to take advantage of and use to absolutely rob the Fallen Deity blind.

Yvvtal wished to find a new vessel in which to reincarnate his Spirit Body.

In simpler terms:

He wanted to come back to life by taking over someone else’s body.

The fact that he created an entire Inheritance Ground, stocked full of ‘Challenges’ and valuable rewards, built up over decades of effort, might seem excessive at first. And, indeed it was.

However, in the time that Yvvtal and the Deities lived on this world, things like Inheritance sites held certain expectations. They were designated areas to train one’s descendants and to pass on one’s teachings, while rewarding those that were talented.

Yvvtal created this Inheritance site as a backup should he ever perish. It was his last resort, should he ever need to use it.

With that in mind, he needed to make it extremely convincing. Deities, in his era, were extremely perceptive beings. If his Inheritance site didn’t look and function like a proper Inheritance site, it would get ignored or worse, destroyed.

Yvvtal could create a convincing Inheritance Grounds while also, at the same time, use that to filter out beings that he couldn’t fully reincarnate into. His standards for a body were both extremely high and unique, meaning not just anyone would do.

And with that in mind, a glint of determination flashed in Micheal’s eyes as he readied himself.

He needed to do what even Baron Fortuna and the Nirvana Saint had failed.

Not only did he need to complete the King’s Challenge…

He needed to complete it perfectly, earning himself several great, and very specific, rewards.

And then, after all of that effort, he would achieve the final reward for perfect completion of the King’s Challenge.

Involuntary bodily possession by Yvvtal the Destroyer.

“Perfect.”

.