Chapter 658: Ragnar?k (1/2)
Fragments of the Memorysteel were twisted and pushed away as the impossibly long tentacles of the Collector snaked their way closer and closer to the heart of the broken Memorysteel planet. Where Zac and his sister were still located. Zac was almost completely out of juice as the nourishing effect of activating the Pink Flash only helped him so much. But a primal fear urged him on, and he ran as fast as he could along with the Memorysteel fragment he was standing on.
A sharp alarm of danger erupted in his mind out of nowhere, and he only had time to shield his sister with his body before a tremendous ripple was released from the Dimensional Seed. This ripple was completely different compared to the nurturing ones they had enjoyed inside the hidden realm though. It was full of offensive power, and Zac felt over a dozen bones shatter as he was flung forward.
Even more shocking, the ripple was filled with what could best be described as sentience, and he got a sense of fear and rage from the energies. It was like the treasure was alive, and one ripple after another was released by the Dimensional Seed.
Zac felt more bones in his body break as the second ripple slammed into him, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood. His organs were in disarray after the two consecutive attacks, the damage even worse than all the wounds from the fight inside the hidden realm. And of course, there was no time to sit down and activate [Surging Vitality].
Knowing When to Back Down (Training (9/9)): Avoid the clash between supreme beings for long enough to be teleported out of the collapsing Taboo Realm. Reward: Reward based on performance at the end of training regimen. (0/1)
Zac looked with confusion at the screen that suddenly appeared in front of him, the surprise even making him forget the pain for a second. He had actually received a second final quest? But the quest didn’t fill him with gratitude, but rather ire. More than anything, it felt like proof that the System was up to no good when it awarded the last quest, while this was the real one.
Or was the quest before a hidden test? He had gotten the training quests because of his Pathstrider-title, and perhaps the System was testing him if his belief in his Path was sturdy, or if he would throw it away the moment he was put in front of a valuable treasure. Or was the System simply going insane like Brazla and gave incoherent and opposing orders?
It was impossible to tell, but there was no inner conflict this time around at least since the objective was exactly what he planned on doing anyway. He knew that he couldn’t take too many more of those ripples, but he had thankfully reached the edge of the Memorysteel shard by that point, and he desperately jumped down even if he hadn’t scouted out what was below. After all, it couldn’t be any worse than what he was suffering right now.
Zac glanced back as he jumped down the fragment, and he saw how huge sections in the sky had been completely disintegrated, the Memorysteel turned into dust while even space itself had broken down completely. Clearly, he and his sister weren't the true targets of the treasure's outbursts. Had they been attacked with that kind of force, they would be gone with no chance of survival.
The Dimensional Seed was trying to fight off the Collector.
However, the tentacles of the Collector were only slightly wounded as they inched closer to the Dimensional Seed. The creature had lost some of its stitched-on-hands, but Zac was shocked to see that the remaining ones formed some sort of seals that created some sort of energy fluctuations that looked pretty efficient at dispersing the spatial ripples.
Was this the true purpose of the limbs attached to its body? Zac had assumed it was to better withstand the main dimension, but was the real reason perhaps to create an armor? An armor that could withstand the spatial attacks of the Dimensional Seed, or at least decrease the effect of its attacks long enough so that the creature could snatch it.
In either case, this wasn’t a battle that Zac could intrude upon. That would be like an ant jumping in between two lions. He definitely didn’t want The Collector to get its hands on the Dimensional Seed if Ogras and the others really were alive in there, but what could he do?
“Warmaster,” a weak voice exclaimed, and Zac looked over in surprise to see Rhubat lying on a piece of Memorysteel, bleeding cracks covering their whole body.
“Hang on!” Zac said as he shot a chain toward the neighboring fragment, dragging himself and Kenzie over.
Rhubat was in an even worse state than himself, and Zac hurriedly pushed a handful of healing pills into their mouth.
“Let’s keep descending. We need to get away from the battle above,” Zac said as he lifted the Anointed with another of his chains.
“What about the others?!” Kenzie interjected, though there wasn’t much conviction in her voice.
“They all had Spatial Seals,” Zac said. “Our only hope is that they’ll be teleported out with the rest of us. As for us, there is nothing we can-”
“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!” an enraged roar that contained enough force to cause small cracks in his soul made Zac stumble with his words, and he once more looked to the sky as he felt a tremendous pressure descend upon him. Kenzie and Rhubat were even worse off, with the Anointed immediately getting knocked out.
Space bent through some unknown means and a five-hundred-meter-long sleek vessel full of power appeared out of nowhere. Just looking at it filled Zac’s heart with trepidation, and he instantaneously understood that it was at least a peak D-Grade vessel, perhaps even C-Grade. It was a proper Cosmic Vessel, the first one that he had ever seen.
However, not only was it already pretty badly damaged when it broke into this dimension, but the location where it appeared was definitely unlucky. It was right between the enraged Dimensional Seed and the Collector’s limbs, and it immediately found itself assailed from two directions in a spot where the laws of space were falling apart. Extremely powerful shields sprung up around it, but it was clear that the barriers wouldn’t last long judging by their flickering.
Suddenly, an avatar twice as large as the whole vessel appeared, forcibly pushing back not only the hundreds of tentacles. It even forcibly stabilized the crumbling dimensional layers around it. An old man and a hooded being soon emerged from the wreckage, and Zac’s eyes widened in terror when he saw the man’s face.
It was The Great Redeemer, in the flesh this time.
How was this possible?! Zac had completed the quest, cutting the last thread of Karma by killing Void’s Disciple. The quest had been completed and he had even used the karma-erasing compound and corpse-destroying powder just to be sure, removing any trace of their existence. Yet Voridis A’Heliophos stood here, radiating a cold and cruel aura, far surpassing even the pressure that Greatest exuded back when they met on that desolate planet.
Were they too late, and he had already zoned in on this place by the time Adcarkas died?
Zac quickly turned away out of fear that The Great Redeemer would sense his gaze, and started escaping with newfound vigor. If a battle between two supreme beings was a deathtrap, then adding another one would obviously only make things worse.
Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that restraining one’s aura and hiding behind Memorysteel fragments was insufficient to avoid detection of a peak D-Grade Hegemon. The floating shards between Zac and the Dimensional Seed suddenly just floated away, creating a clear line of sight for the Karmic Cultivator.
‘We meet again, Zachary Atwood,’ a voice echoed in his mind with enough force to make him puke out blood. ‘I don’t know how you managed to reroute the threads of Karma to this crumbling dimension and then cut them, but nothing can save you now.’
Zac didn’t answer the taunt, remembering Ogras’ warnings about forming new threads of fate. All his focus was on finding a way to survive long enough to get teleported out of this place with the help of his Spatial Seal. That was his last hope. The Karmic threads had been severed, and this realm was collapsing. Hopefully, that would be enough for Voridis A’Heliophos to lose the trail, and if not, enough time to escape from Earth with a Teleportation Token.
‘An infant Dimensional Seed? I’ve only heard of such an item in legends, no wonder the spatial ripples almost destroyed my vessel. It looks like you’ve brought me a tremendous gift indeed,’ the sinister voice continued in Zac’s mind. ‘Perhaps there’s no need to turn you into a fulcrum. But I am still curious what allowed a progenitor to reach the 9th floor of the Tower of Eternity after a few scant months of cultivation. I’ll deal with this miscreation first, then I’ll slowly find out what secrets your body hold. For now…’