Chapter 470 Breaking the Chains III (1/2)
CHAPTER 470
BREAKING THE CHAINS (III)
Lino stared somberly at the spinning portal in front of him. The giant-sized hole sucked Devil Qi from its surroundings rapidly, purifying it and spitting it right back out. It wasn't difficult for Lino to realize the location of the portal – it was built at the exact place where the Umbra Kingdom's Palace used to be, or, rather, beneath it.
Naturally, the surrounding area was unrecognizable as such; ebony-dyed towers and spires arose in-between the massive walls, with dark-brick buildings filling up the empty space in-between. There was hardly a source of light to be seen, and any cultivator beneath the Void threshold would effectively be blind here.
Sighing inwardly for a moment, Lino shook his head and stepped through the portal. The sensation of the spacetime ripples soon overwhelmed him, He carefully observed the spatial tears outside the artificial tunnel; in their breaks, gazing beyond them, he saw the stars alight the vast cosmos. He pondered, inwardly, whether just like their own sun, those stars hosted life? They had to, he mused. After all, there were so many of them. Thinking back to the map of the cosmos Tim showed him a long time ago, Lino's convictions became even greater. What they could see was a literal grain of sand, a droplet of water in all of the world's oceans.
His thoughts were interrupted as he was spat out of the tunnel, thrust into a completely new world. His brows furrowed immediately; he couldn't breathe without using Chaos to purify the insanely dense Devil Qi that surrounded him. Looking around, he saw sword-shaped erections spat out of the earth like pillars, some straight and some at an angle, dyed in ashen gray and black.
The landscape surrounding them was uneven, going up and down, forming hilltops and dented valleyways along the strange curvature. The horizon splintered due to the fog and mist his eyes could not peer through, though Lino immediately realized that Hell – as a world altogether – was actually physically larger than Noterra. Not by much, but enough to be noticed. It was not nearly as populated, however. After all, only Devils and Demons could ever hope to actually live here.
Lino was faintly shocked, wondering how the armies of Noterra had the capacity to even invade this land so many times over. Could it be that they also used their Qi to purify the Devil Qi? That would have cost them too much, however, effectively rendering them useless for a fight.
He landed squarely, grasping the handle of the Slayer and the Edge, taking slow steps forward while examining his surroundings. For the time being, he decided to simply wander around aimlessly. This was only the second time he'd found himself on a plane that was far away from Noterra, an entirely new planet at that. He found it rather strange and obscure to think about, yet couldn't help but admit that, eventually, he'd have to figure it out.
As he walked, the scenery around him slowly began to drift. From low hills and dips, it sprung into a maw-like valley surrounded by skeletal mountains. The valley itself was ragged with scars and ruined stones, occasional flicker of smoke still billowing into the sky. He felt strange, slightly illusionary, as he realized that the world he perceived would occasionally splinter, throwing itself upside down, then looping through the spacetime.
”… hm?” he mumbled, frowning. ”There's… a higher dimension here?”
”There are higher dimensions everywhere,” Ataxia replied all of a sudden. ”They are simply constrained weakly within Hell so that they slip out occasionally.”
”… similar to that black hole?” Lino mused.
”Yes… and no. This place doesn't have a multitude of higher dimensions; that black hole, however, does.”
”Doesn't matter,” Lino shrugged. ”Space indeed is too mysterious.”
After leaving the valley, Lino found himself standing in front of a massive gash, similar to the Gorge back on Noterra. The difference, however, was that this was simply a river's canal – a very deep, wide and massive canal, but a canal nonetheless. He could easily depict the riverbed which had tens of thousands of cracks splintering left and right like spiderwebs, but the ends and the beginnings of the canal eluded him.
He unfurled the pair of wings and flew over to the other side casually, landing and coming to a halt. Right there, in another crater-like dip, he saw a city rising. Though of similar make to the one back on Noterra, it appeared even more majestic, doused in tinkering, ashen-gray mist with screw-like spires piercing the high-skies above. Eighteen towers stood erect at the edges, persistent beams of black light shot off from their tips toward the converging center where they formed a spherical membrane, translucent, occasionally pulsating. Within, an accoyed shadow floated in the center, looping over itself from time to time.
Due to the size of the sphere, Lino calculated that the figure had to be at least a hundred meters tall altogether, and was clearly a Devil for six sets of horns stuck out of its head.
”… Primordial Devil?” Lino's lips cracked into a grin. ”Is this how they are born?”
”It is,” this time around it wasn't Ataxia that replied to him, but the corporeal apparition that suddenly appeared next to him. Lino didn't seem startled, as though he was expecting it. ”A culmination of Qi, Will, and Laws is shredded through the Arrays and Formations, concentrated into the Womb. It takes around eighteen million years for a single Primordial Devil to be born.”
”Oh?” Lino mumbled. ”That one seems close to being born, no?”
”Hm,” Ashtar confirmed. ”It should be another million years, at most.”
”… you seem rather eager to spill your secrets,” Lino said. ”What if I go over and blow that womb up?”
”You'll kill him.”