Chapter 1584 (2/2)

Their light was darker and less eye-catching than those above, but these were some of the original spirits that made this place. The shade approached the moss spirits and offered his hand. From the back, the oldest, dimmest moss spirit stirred. Then it left its place in the engine of the city, starting to hop and whizz just as quickly as the more recently generated moss spirits above.

Its glee was infectious. And in that aging moss spirit was the memory of a pure dream. Grinning, the shade seized this piece and then shot straight upward.

Above the walking city were four floating islands the meandered around the city as though they were loosely tethered to it. The shade’s current target was the smallest and the highest of those islands, where it cut cleanly through silver mist to reach a massive mansion, standing alone on the property. The shade landed on the roof, looking around at the plant structure that welcomed the shade with open arms.

Truly, it was a good feeling to be so instantly accepted. After the depression isolation of the shaft, these shows of affection warmed the shade.

Then the shade passed through the floor and to one of the bedrooms below. Its fingers opened the closet and it located a seal that was tucked away toward the top. Its fingers brushed away the dust as it took the object. The shade stared at the seal without much recognition for several seconds, until its foggy memory produced a term for what the seal represented: the Order Ducis.

Still, even with that term, the shade was nonplussed at the function of such a strange item. But it was necessary, so he took it. The memory inside of that item was one of responsibility. The shade closed its eyes and used its Nether to sense the flows of significance.

There were two more thick flows remaining, so the shade left the island and its silver mist behind. Luckily, the two flows of significance led to a location near to each other. Soon, the shade arrived at a small hut sitting in the wilderness. It passed through the door, finding that the furniture within the room made the shade think about the concept of home. Its fingers touched a pile of letters sitting on the desk, but these were written by something other than its target. Strangely, the letters had notes of Nether clinging to them.

The shade wondered if beings of Nether were more common than it had thought.

Uninterested, the shade went to the heavy iron pot. This too was insufficiently significant for its purposes, so it drifted around the cottage. Item by item, the shade examined everything, but nothing seemed to suit its needs. Luckily, a strong wind blew by and caused some items that were hanging out back to rustle.

Curious, the shade passed through the wall and found several large wooden frames that held aloft thick sheets of woven vines. The maker had clearly spent quite a bit of time carefully gathering different varieties of vines and then preserving them. Some had thorns, others had dried flowers. The final result was an oddly compelling maze of plant matter.

Its gentle fingers touched one of the hanging items. Inside was the memory of a meeting that would change two lives forever. Intimacy was practically overflowing from the woven vines. The shade nodded in satisfaction; this would work.

After storing the woven vines away, the shade followed its instincts and entered into a strange place only a kilometer away. It was a tomb, but the tomb’s floor was covered in dense Engravings. Before the shade went up to the raised central platform, it explored the Engravings on the ground. The ten areas relied on very different principles than Nether Engraving did, but the current shade was extremely experienced at both layering Engravings and interpreting them from its study of Nether Cores.

For a brief time, the shade lost itself in its research into the Engravings. Very quickly, a significant portion of the Engravings' meaning became clear to it. All in all, it could quickly interpret about 80% of the entire legacy that was left here. It could have proceeded further, but it could tell that there was a layered message spread across all ten of the areas. The effect was novel, but the shade lost interest.

Somehow, the shade knew the message was not for it.

Perhaps if it spent time here, it could read that final message, but even its instincts were loath to chase that secret. So it returned to its task. The shade ascended to the central platform and looked straight upward. There, hanging in the air, masked by a relatively clever folding of space, was a fist-sized chunk of significance.

In the shade’s memories of this place, it hadn’t even detected that significance was lurking above its head. But how could the current shade miss an obvious pocket of Nether?

No memories were present in the significance, but it was extremely valuable. An important figure in the Nexus had died here. That had meaning. Now, the shade planned to take advantage of that reservoir of energy.

This would provide a significant amount of reinforcement to whatever material the shade settled on to be his core. It was the final piece that the shade needed. It raised its hand and seized that energy.

Finally, it felt like its preparations were sufficient. As long as the shade could find a strong material, he could begin forming his Nether Core. Without consciously thinking about it, the shade returned to that island with its seething lines of silver mist. Then it looked down and watched the city with many legs clambering through a mountain range while it considered the problem of the physical medium.

Its thoughts were… jumbled, to say the least. In terms of solving a concrete problem, the shade was extremely talented. Its form had been streamlined to complete a distant goal in near-impossible circumstances. Even those dense Engravings within the tomb had readily revealed their purposes before its discerning gaze. Yet in the free-form tree of decisions that would lead it to create a Nether Core…

The finish line was within reach. What slowed the shade was not capability, but insight.

The shade sighed in a rare showing of hesitation; it truly did not have the tools for this problem. With a thought, an image of a fist-sized event horizon appeared above the shade’s body. Then purple-black flames sprang into being around its head. Its already powerful senses sharpened. Beyond the present, the shade could witness the broad avenues to the future.

It looked at the floating islands and the walking city beneath it. The shade could see the way that this city would become a crossroads of significance for him in the future. Originally, the shade planned to locate the reinforcement he needed and the sturdy material before returning to the shaft and creating the Nether Core. But the shade also knew that it didn’t truly need to keep the Nether Core with its body.

It could create the core here. Its instincts seemed to be considering an alternative to its previous plan ponderously, just as ill-equipped for this sort of long-term decision as the shade was. A Nether Core kept on his body would provide him with a boost to its physical power and recoverability. But at the same time, the shade knew that distance would mean very little to the Nether Core. Perhaps such a decision would allow opponents to cut off his access to the Nether Core…

But the shade had memories of foes that suppressed its Nether in the past anyway. They had directly rid it of Nether. And even with the distance, the Nether Core would be better equipped to handle that suppression no matter what.

A Nether Core that was his would always be connected to him. That was a fact.

The shade’s ears twitched, still covered in purple-black flames. It could hear the sounds of the city below as though it were standing amongst them. Voices and flames and doors and furniture and metal refineries and farming and wind and sizzling food… the significance in this place was already robust. It was very suitable to house its Nether Core.

Yet the shade turned and glanced to the side, toward a massive floating island that was almost half as large as the city itself. The shade moved, passing through the deserted surface to the depths of that floating island, where it found a group of workers carrying a massive grey-green pillar down through a series of strange rooms. The shade drifted after them, dragging its fingers across the walls.

Considering the island’s size, it was quite strange that so few people were present. Currently, it was empty aside from a few groups of workers like this one that were performing mundane tasks. The flows of significance spiraled around this place but did not yet enter. This was a new place. There was no memory or connection yet present.

And yet…

The more the shade looked at that grey-green pillar, the more it liked it. The metal was one that it didn’t recognize, but it felt extremely durable. Plus, with the expansive surface of the four-meter long metal pillar, the shade might be able to incorporate some of its newly learned Engraving techniques into its Nether Core. The layering would be much simpler with a larger space to begin.

The workers proceeded downward, heading to the very bottom of the floating island. At this deepest portion, there was a large, circular room with nothing else present; it was completely empty. The workers then carried the pillar to that place and set it up in the middle, as though it were a relic to a pagan god.

Then the lead worker gestured sharply. “Alright, that’s it. Let’s get out of here. They are going to activate the Engravings soon. Careful you don’t leave anything; after this, this place is just for the students.”

One of the other workers looked up at the pillar. “Hey, boss, why did we just bring this down here? It’s valuable, sure… but shouldn’t the final reward for clearing the labyrinths be a bit more… impressive? Besides, the refineries were just drooling to get their hands on this...”

The lead worker slapped his hands together. “Orders from the top. Who the hell are we to question? Some things seem more impressive when you’ve worked harder to achieve them. And based on what Miss Collins said, it will be extremely rare for someone to make it this deep.”

“It certainly has an… austere charm,” One of the other workers said cautiously. After a few more comments from the workers, the group left.

And in that empty space, the shade appeared. It stepped out of the thin area for Nether and put its hands on its hips. Its senses scrutinized the tall metal pillar. It was so thick around that two humans would barely be able to touch their hands if they stood on opposite sides of the pillar

Then the shade carefully set its gathered significance on the ground. The spear, the thread of indomitability, the fruit, a handful of dirt, the ancient moss spirit, the seal, the beautiful mat of woven vines, and the fist of dense Nether were all set out in a line. Seven memories and a well of significance were the building blocks to his Nether Core. Then the shade walked around the pillar, examining it one more time.

Then it began to smile with anticipation.