Chapter 647: Weight of Sin (1/2)
“This isn’t a game, you know,” Zac sighed as he turned to his sister.
“Just look,” Kenzie said as she tapped a button on her tablet.
Zac frowned with confusion, but his eyes widened in shock when a meter-thick Memorysteel wall suddenly sprung up in front of Kenzie, completely shielding her. Even he would have some trouble getting through a wall that thick provided it had a constant source of Base Power.
“It took some time, but I managed to figure out a way to activate both a protective algorithm and to trigger the attacks. The sphere up there is overflowing it Memorysteel too, I might actually be stronger than you when we get there,” Kenzie said with a triumphant smile. “Add to that my ability to deal with all kinds of tech-related issues… You can’t leave me here.”
“Alright, fine,” Zac sighed. “But the moment we encounter people, you run away and hide within the Memorysteel, okay? I'll deal with the people, you deal with the machines.”
“Fine,” Kenzie said with a roll of her eyes before she ran away, perhaps afraid that Zac would change his mind.
Thea wryly smiled as she looked at the encounter. Zac could only shrug as he sat down and started working on refilling his Void Energy. He had an idea since a while ago, and he took out one of his two Beast Cores from the Void Beasts. A torrent of energy once more entered his body, prompting his [Void Heart] to wake up. Beat after beat echoed out, and Zac’s eyes lit up as he felt the sense of hollowness quickly dissipate.
But there was something that didn’t make sense. Either his [Void Heart] had an atrocious efficiency, losing most of the energy it swallowed, or only a small part of the energy went into restoring his reserves.
The hidden node refused to continue running after just a few minutes, and prodding it with his Bloodline Method did nothing to help. Zac wasn't surprised, since that basic manual never mentioned anything about controlling Bloodline Nodes at all. He would have to find another way to do that.
His Void Energy didn’t feel completely restored even after having absorbed energy from a half-step D-Grade beast. That pointed toward the fact that restoring energy for [Force of the Void] wasn’t the main purpose for [Void Heart], at least not when absorbing energy from Beast Cores. It was likely that the rest of the energy either worked on improving the bloodline or the node itself.
The minutes eventually turned into an hour and Zac got ready to set out. The final group was Zac, Ogras, Billy, Kenzie, and a group of thirty Anointed led by Rhubat. That still left many of the elites down below in case something came up, while also providing Zac with some support.
Zac initially hadn’t planned on bringing Billy along, but Kenzie would be able to provide him with backup through her drones and Memorysteel manipulation. Besides, the Titan had formed a very fluent battle cooperation with the Anointed which had even allowed them to restrain the Grand Elder of the Cartava clan. Zac hoped they could do the same to Inevitability while he dealt with Void’s Disciple.
Billy was also one of those who had the easiest time dealing with the pressure stemming from the Memorysteel mountain for some reason. He didn’t feel a thing at the middle layers from the looks of it, completely ignoring pressure that even impacted Zac. Such an ability would give him a huge advantage in the Sphere as well, since Zac could only assume the suppression would be even stronger up there.
The group didn’t waste any time, and they immediately set out toward the peak after saying their goodbyes. The army would remain on the slopes, recuperating and getting their hands on the last sets of Spatial Seals required.
The Anointed weren’t really interested in looting the caves on the way, but Zac, Ogras, and Billy worked hard enough for the rest combined as they rushed back and forth along the cliffs. Unfortunately, the caves holding treasures actually grew increasingly sparse after they reached the 13th layer, and Zac only managed to find a scant few even after climbing for hours.
Billy was finally feeling the pressure by this point, but Zac shook his head with a wry smile upon seeing him grow to four meters tall and gain his signature golden hair. Activating his bloodline seemed to weaken the suppressive effect on him even further, and there almost seemed to be some sort of resonance between him and the mountain itself.
One person who was weirdly unbothered was Kenzie. She tried to explain how she used her four Dao Seeds to form alternating ripples and interlocking layers that negated the pressure, creating some sort of void chamber around herself. Zac tried to follow her explanation a few times, but there was simply no way that he could control his energy emission with the kind of precision that she mentioned.
At least it looked like Ogras wasn’t faring any better judging by the disgusted look the demon shot Kenzie before he started forcibly hunting for treasures again with grit teeth and blood-tinted eyes.
The value of every single cave was quite extraordinary though, and one impressive item after another entered Zac's Spatial Ring. He was currently standing in a cave on the 16th layer, looking down at a dozen unknown plants that emitted an extremely dense and bloody fragrance. Zac’s body clearly wanted to eat the tomato-like fruits, but he wasn’t the only one.
Even [Verun’s Bite] woke up and growled with desire in his mind, prompting Zac to cut up a few and have the axe drink the juices.
The fruits weren’t enough to evolve the axe in one go, but they did seem to help the axe push forward toward the next stage a bit while also filling the runes on the handle to the brim. Zac had planned on feeding some of his left-over dragon blood to Verun before they reached the peak, but it looked like he had saved on that expenditure.
Zac quickly left the cave and kept climbing, but the search for treasures rapidly lost steam. The pressure kept get getting worse, and by the time the group reached the 17th layer, Ogras didn’t have the energy to look at all. Zac was losing Cosmic Energy with every step as well, and he tried to avoid any large detours. It felt like someone had reached inside his body and was squeezing his organs by this point, which has a wholly godawful feeling.
Each step forward was getting as taxing as a harsh duel, and he didn’t want to arrive at the peak completely exhausted from searching for some random valuables. The weaker of the Anointed were almost forced to almost crawl as they arduously pushed forward, but they ascending without a word of complaint. Zac knew that they would rather burn their life force than turn back at this point.
No one else really had the energy to hunt for treasures any longer either, but the group did stumble into a cave at the peak of the 17th layer. The one who made a killing that time was Kenzie. It was a lab, and considering how high up the mountain it was, it must have been right at the edge of the Core Layer before the world changed. It housed just four black cubes that didn't look all-too-impressive, but Kenzie’s eyes lit up in excitement after connecting her tablet to the machines.
It turned out that they were some sort of Technocrat super-computers. They didn’t contain any data, but one could use them to run calculations and simulations, pushing the power of Jeeves to even greater heights. Kenzie quickly stowed them away with a burning look in her eyes, and Zac could only helplessly look on as his sister fell deeper and deeper into taboo territory.
Should he take the computers and smash them?
He eventually shook his head and refocused on the task at hand. He had bigger fish to worry about right now. They exited the cave and passed the last milestone, finally experiencing the full extent of the suppression that the System had arranged. The progression slowed to a crawl, and the last layer took as much time as the last three did together even if they didn’t spend any time looking for treasure.