Chapter 873 Dark Future (1/2)

The outskirts of the Sea Dragon City, the distant southern reaches of the Mycroft continent.

Grey clouds were unleashing a downpour upon the land, leaving heaven and earth in vagueness while thunder roared amidst layers of rain clouds.

Vahina the Sage of the Oceans stood in her backyard, looking up at the skies, her face impassive, veiled by a sheet of psionic veil. Even so, that little act paused the thundering downpour of this rainy season around the Sea Dragon City, the rains and gales promptly stopping, their resounding crash reduced to perfect silence.

”My lady. Are you in a bad mood?”

A middle-aged handmaid who stood behind Vahina stood forward and handed the Legendary champion a cup of rare high-grade potion. Known as the 'Heart of Stone', it was once a secret exclusive to the Earth Temple that requires various rare magical ingredients. It strengthens the mind and grants considerable magical immunity, but most factions and Extraordinary champions had recently publicized once hidden texts and recipes, the Heart of Stone include.

Though it remained rare, it was still much more commonly seen than before and was only considered a luxury object. Thanks to that, many gifted psionics were discovered in the Sea Dragon City alone since every middle-class family with some extra income would buy a bottle, testing the fortunes of their own children to see if they could secure a tutelage under the local Legendary champion.

Being the most powerful heir of divine bloodlines and the Earth Temple, Vahina grew up drinking that potion thanks to a former elder, which was why it was absolutely ineffective for her now. That familiar scent, however, would make Vahina recall that warm and comforting childhood and still her from bewilderment.

”Indeed,” Vahina answered rather nonchalantly. ”It's not exactly a bad mood, but…”

”You're at a slight loss of what to do, right?”

The handmaid put a firesilk cardigan on Vahina. Though she did not need clothing to stop the cold as a Legendary champion, it was a habit of the handmaid—or more correctly, her best friend to stood by her over decades. Vahina hence simply allowed her to tidy the garment, a hint of warmth in her heart.

After some silence, Vahina suddenly spoke.

”Laya. If one day, you received some very bad news that you could never solve, face or start to confront it from, what would you do?”

Though the silk kept Vahina's face inscrutable, anyone could hear the great psionic champion who had mastered Soul Substance Transition and could meld herself into heaven and earth was, at the moment, in a moment of great loss and doubt. ”Laya, tell me—if a new path forged out of a pass filled with calamity and threats proved to have an end as well… what should I do?”

The handmaid called Laya listened to Vahina's perplexed words that were more words of self-doubt than questioning, her expression becoming serious.

She was the same age as Vahina and had grown up alongside her. After Vahina had become a Legendary champion, her facial features did not age, while Laya's hair was growing white even with the help of potions. Indeed, Laya was an ordinary Silver champion from every perspective possible, one who even lived a material life and existed in a distinctly different world from Vahina.

However, it was precisely such a normal person who, thanks to her constant exchange with a Legend that Laya learned something: even Legendary champions felt excitement, joy, perplexity. They might be superior beings, but they were still beings of emotions, occasionally feeling overburden and needing the opinions or consoling from others.

”My lady.”

Hence, after some thinking, Laya said softly, ”While I am unsure what troubles you and how terrible the news was, is what troubles you a calamity that would soon come to pass?”

”No.” Vahina shook her head, her eyes still fixed upon the skies: the raging color of gloom reflecting her mood as she slowly replied, ”It would be a matter that would only come a very long time later if it does. After all, we still have a massive hurdle to surpass in decades—we don't have a future if we couldn't handle that too.”

”Still, Laya.”

At those words, Vahina turned, holding her friend's hand and slowly strolling through her own backyard. ”I know you would definitely say something like 'what good is there in worrying something so distant?'” she said, ”You might even tease me that 'I'd be dead by then and whatever calamity wouldn't have anything to do with a mortal like me', distracting me with another problem so that I would forget the bigger headache.”

”But this calamity isn't like any of the past. Unlike murloc rampage, tsunamis, the Berserker Dragon Plague, otherworld invaders, what I worry about isn't calamity itself, but an idleness that grows in the heart out of the sense that 'resistance was futile'.”

At those words, Vahina sighed heavily as the massive volumes of details a certain warrior sent her appeared in her mind once more. It was his prediction of the present circumstances, and substantial theories obtained tailored to those predictions.

Joshua van Radcliffe.

How could you always paint such terrible and hopeless sights of the future?

How could you always sharply uncover shadows that were darker than black amidst the gloom?

There were moments where even Legendary champions would never lose their strong spirits in the face of all calamity.

However, there would still be a sense of feebleness in the face of genuine despair.

Vahina knew that the reason she could fearlessly stand up against any powerful foe, even any Evil God was because even if she died gallantly in battle, the darkness would always pass, and the light would certainly come. Failure would be inevitable for humans, but at least they strived so that they could make one last tribute to the light.

But this time, Joshua told them a supreme dark reality that light itself may not exist.

”So what if we triumphed over the Evil Gods who would come decades later? There is no ridding of the fated darkness, and even if we would advance towards the center of the Multiverse, our present ability would leave us ensnared in the boundless temporal traps…”

And what if they did reach the center?

Why were galaxies becoming still? Why would the Initial Flame shrink and detach? Why are no galaxies born unto this Multiverse? Do the masterminds actually exist? If they did, what were they, what were their purpose, and how could they be beaten?

There were so many questions that humans could not solve even one even after exhausting all effort. There was nothing they could do, leaving one's mood in a mess.

”It would have been better if I wasn't informed… Being left out of the loop, I could at least ignorantly and fearlessly muster my courage…”