Chapter 665: Power (1/2)

“Can’t we all stay here together?” Kenzie entreated as she looked at Leandra.

“You have been discovered, child,” Leandra sighed. “You tried to evolve with insufficient preparations. You staying here will put this whole world in danger. We need to leave for the Six Profundity Empire. Unless something unexpected happens, we will be able to enter an Immemorial Realm there.”

Kenzie turned to Zac, who could only nod in what he hoped to be a comforting manner.

“Ok… But you need to help me with two things,” Kenzie said with determination. “First, you need to save a certain person. I’m sure you can do it with your power.”

“Save someone?” Leandra said as a frown spread across her face, causing Zac to get a sinking feeling.

“He’s called Ogras, and he saved my life,” Kenzie said as a screen appeared in front of her.

It was no doubt the product of Jeeves, and it rapidly started flashing images and symbols for two seconds before it disappeared. Zac could only understand snippets, but he had seen a few scenes from the events three years ago.

“Oh, so something like that happened in the Research Base?” Leandra sighed as a spatial tear opened next to her. “So much for my preparations.”

A few streams of light entered the void, but she soon shook her head as the gate closed.

“A Dimensional Seed is a sentient treasure, and it is in its growing stages. It has moved to an area the cultivators in this Sector call the Million Gates Territory. The dense Spatial Energies there will nurture it. It would be impossible to save the demonling now as the seed has hidden between the folds of reality. But in a decade or two the seed should be satiated and bloom. At that point you simply need to find the pocket word it has created and pick the demonling up,” Leandra said.

“How can we find him?” Kenzie asked hurriedly. “Can you tell if he, if they, are alive?”

“As long as one is in the area, it will be hard to miss the opening. The blooming of a Dimensional Seed gives off tremendous energy signatures, and tens of millions will enter its dimension in search of treasure,” Leandra smiled. “It is a brand-new dimension, rife with echoes of the Origin. Your friends were alive when entering the Hidden Realm, and they have gained a rare opportunity in a sense. Their cultivation environment should be almost at the level of an Ancient Realm.”

“They’re really alive?!” Kenzie exclaimed with happiness written all over her face, though it soon scrunched up with disappointment. “A decade or two, though?”

“Child, you should understand. We will have long left the sector by then. I can only provide this much guidance,” she said.

“I’ll go pick him up when it’s time,” Zac said when he saw Kenzie’s look. “I was planning on going there anyway.”

“Right, okay…” Kenzie said, though reluctance was written all over her face. “Secondly, help me finish this array. It’s for Zac.”

Zac looked on as Kenzie took out an extremely densely inscribed array disk the next moment, and another wave of sorrow hit him.

“An illusion array meant for his Core? Exquisite work, but unfortunately it won’t work. Your understanding of the Dao is too limited to hide that thing from Class-4 cultivators. Luckily, I was already prepared for this. The Kayar-Elu have long perfected the methods to walk freely among those who have tied their chariot to the cursed heavens,” Leandra said as she took out a crystal and turned to Zac.

“What a disappointment. You cannot imagine the resources that went into fusing your bloodline with a perfected Duplicity Core. You could have used it to become the incarnation of the Machine God, yet you sullied it with the mark of the unliving. Still, our preparations will work just as well in this situation.”

Zac wanted to simply throw the crystal away as it floated into his hands, but he restrained himself and tried to appear thankful as he put it away.

“It is an almost perfected array that can hide your unique situation. Monarchs and weaker Autarchs will be unable to see through its disguise, and those above will not care about your situation. It will also impede any attempt at looking into the truth of your being. Even stronger Autarchs will have their perception subverted to some degree, thinking they found nothing out of the norm from your status screen or body.

“However, its impenetrable disguise comes at a price. You will not be able to change back and forth when the array is active. If you break the seal to change your constitution, it will take a month before you can hide your core again,” Leandra said before she turned back to Kenzie.

“Child, it is time. Every second we spend will increase the threat to this world. I will put you into my Inner World,” Leandra said.

“Okay, one moment,” Kenzie sighed as she walked over and hugged Zac. “Take care until we meet again.”

“Be careful,” Zac said with a low volume. “It’s dangerous out there. Trust no one.”

That was as far as he dared go, but he couldn’t let Kenzie disappear without giving at least a small warning. The next moment his sister was gone, leaving only Leandra behind.

“I can feel the fury that churns in your heart. You were just a baby who didn’t choose to be brought into the world or to be forced into our cause. But you still carry the Original Sin. You are the source of the ruin of our clan, the reason for the death of five hundred billion people,” she said as she looked at Zac with mixed emotions.

“Our paths will diverge from here on out, our Karma is severed. I will not kill you, but neither will I help you any further from today. If you come looking for us, you better be powerful enough to kill me,” Leandra said with a staid face, as though her deranged words were something normal for a mother to say to her son. “Or you will fall even before getting close to your sister.”

A prompt appeared that said Nexus Coins had been transferred to him, but Zac waved it away with annoyance. Was his mother really trying to buy him off after what she did?

“That’s not up to you to decide!” Zac roared.

He could no longer hold back the anger bubbling in his chest now that Kenzie wasn’t here. He was just so furious that he didn’t know what to do with himself. He was angry at his sister for hiding the risks with the evolution. Angry at himself for passively letting things proceed until they reached this point and for hiding the truth about his activities, which ended up implicating Thea.

But most of all he was angry at Leandra who had proven herself so needlessly cruel and murderous. He refused to believe that the only way for his mother to save Kenzie was to kill someone close to him. His wrath was met by a cold indifference though, which only poured oil on the fire.

“Your sister is the harbinger of the Final Era, but she cannot fulfill her destiny in this destitute corner of the universe. I am taking her to a more appropriate stage,” Leandra said as the purple and futuristic dress covered in Technocrat scripts on her body shuddered, turning into a beautiful robe.

Zac’s eyes looked on with incomprehension. It felt like he wasn’t looking at a Technocrat any longer, but rather someone like Be’Zi; a supreme cultivator. A swirling vortex opened behind her the next moment, and it looked exactly like the portal the System showed him during his mind tribulation.

“Farewell… my son.”

A second later she was gone, leaving Zac utterly, completely alone.

“This is your inner world?” Kenzie asked as she looked out across the endless vista with amazement written all over her face.