Jyovic Bone walked along the hallway, his expression complex. He sighed, "Is this the right path? The price for the Aristocratic title…"
"I am Heima Bone. That is a fact." His ears picked up a faint sound, making his body shudder, an expression of distraught etched on his face. His limbs trembled, goosebumps appearing on it.
Noticing the changes, he wondered aloud, "When was the last time I felt such fear?" The figure of a man, seated on a throne, the figure of a spider in battle with the man appeared in his mind, the two figures emitting a chill that emerged from the depths of his self.
'Compared to Ancestor Marble, that man is many times scarier.' He entered the hall, looking at the time on a wall clock, the sole object present in the room apart from the urns.
11:59 AM, Jyovic Bone clapped his hands, signalling for the attention of everyone present. Almost eighty pairs of eyes gazed at his direction, filled with sadness that made his heart lurch. He looked around, noticing the gaze of Hancent, one devoid of any expression.
"It is time," His voice beamed out, echoing across the room, resonating with everyone. In silence, everyone stood up, carrying an urn each, walking towards the end of the room. Hancent followed suit, stopping before the wall situated at the very end of the room.
Noon, seeing the 80 Bone family members standing next to each other, Jyovic Bone too followed suit, standing at the spot on the left extreme. With a rumble, the wall shuddered, opening up from the bottom.
After reaching the height of a man, it stopped opening, revealing a murky black brook flowing behind it. The brook—spanning 2 metres wide and a metre deep—flowed at a gentle pace, taking a minute to traverse a distance of 100 metres, the width of the room. It emitted neither smell nor any sound, flowing silently, the only indication of its presence being its colour.
It lacked a mass, its aura being non-existent. Seeing its appearance, Jyovic Bone became dazed, his expression filled with nostalgia. 'I never wanted to see this again.'
"Everyone," His voice was light, audible to everyone present due to the silent atmosphere, filled with a serene calm. "The dead have passed the torch to us, the living. But, they will continue to protect our city forever. Glory to Marble City!"
Saying his piece, he took hold of an urn, filled with the ashes of his younger brother. His younger brother had never married, dedicating all his life to research for the betterment of their family. Hence, he had Jyovic Bone as his only direct relative.
His hands trembled as Jyovic Bone placed the urn in the brook, watching it float along its surface, three-fourths of it submerged underwater. The urn flowed across the brook, turning phantom as it approached half-way, disappearing into it by the time it reached the end.
Following his lead, after the urn had disappeared, the Bone family member standing to the right of Jyovic Bone, a man in his fifties placed an urn on the brook. The urn had the ashes of his son, a Tier 4 Ground Controller, the pride of the Bone Family. In the same process, the urn disappeared by the time it reached the end.
10 people away stood Hancent, his expression looking deader than the ashes in the urns. When it was his turn, he placed the urn filled with the ashes of Henrietta on the brook, watching it flow along its surface. As if he wanted to follow after her, he jumped into the brook, his action only making the others shake their heads. None had the energy to save him, one who had given up on life.
'A promising young lad, one filled with ambitions who had confronted me without fear in his youth to ask the hand of Henrietta. Now, after suffering one setback after another, finally witnessing the death of his wife, it seems he has lost the will to live. Maybe, if he thought about the children he is leaving behind, would he still take such an action?' Jyovic Bone thought, letting out a self-deprecating laugh.
'Maybe, he found out something in the end. That was the final straw that broke the camel's neck.' Memories of the past flashed across his mind, thinking back to when he was renowned as a hero.
"Sir Jyovic Bone, I have come to ask for the hand of your daughter. I wish to marry her." A young Hancent in his early twenties stood, his face filled with vigour, his aura sharp to the extreme.
'Is this lad only an Area Controller? Even Wave Controllers have but an ounce of his aura. It is quite…suffocating. Suffocating? Interesting, to make me think like that.' Jyovic Bone flashed a smile.
"Alright, prove to me that you are worthy of her. Even considering the difference in strength, she is already a Tier above you."
"Go ahead." Hancent stood, his back erect. "Test me until you are satisfied."
"As you wish," Jyovic Bone smiled, unleashing his aura to the extreme, displaying the terrifying strength of a Transformer. "You pass if you can withstand this for 10 seconds."
The moment his aura impacted Hancent, like a broken doll, he collapsed, coughing out a mouthful of blood. Various nerves erupted across his body, dying his skin red while his eyeballs showed signs of cracking. It looked like he was on the verge of death; death being a certainty if he wasn't treated soon.
Jyovic Bone stood rooted to the spot, stupefied. 'What was with that show of aura, making me excited? He went down in an instant, without even putting up a fight.'
"Mary!" He shouted, "There's an injured person here, on the verge of death."
A lady appeared behind him in an instant, the air stirring up behind her like a tornado had passed through. Showing a trace of anger on her face, she commented, "How many times have I told you to not disturb me? I was in the middle of something important."
"Hurry," Jyovic Bone pointed at Hancent, "Heal him before he dies. He's Henrietta's lover."
"Okay," With a wave of her hand, a pale blue light appeared, seeping into Hancent's body. In a second, his condition was stabilised.
"Your Unranked Skill is really unique. This is on another level," Jyovic Bone praised, an expression of admiration on his face.
"This is nothing," A pleased expression appeared on her face as she waved her hands. She then noticed his face, pointing at him, "Do you want me to heal you?"
"Eh?" Jyovic Bone raised his hand, looking at the direction she pointed at, touching his nose. He noticed something viscous dripping from his nose, red in colour. Only then did he notice a faint ringing sound resounding in his ears, one that was very faint, growing in magnitude over time, at a snail's pace.
"Interesting," Jyovic Bone muttered, gaining admiration over the youth who proved his worth, without consideration of his injury. It was a reckless behaviour on his part but Jyovic Bone approved of the courage and dare Hancent possessed to do so.
'He still had a lot to do in life.' Jyovic Bone sighed, gazing at the figure of Hancent as he fell into the murky brook.
'I let my children down. Maybe, I never had one in the first place.' His dazed eyes regained clarity for an instant, filled with regret and despair. He watched the murky brook grow closer, its stillness seeping into him.
His body touched the brook, the plunge silent, without a single splash or stir in the water, as if it was an illusion. His body became submerged within it, turning him unconscious at first contact. As he flowed along the surface, his body turned into a phantom, slowly disappearing by the time he reached the end.
"Father!" A Shrill scream interrupted the ceremony as a figure dashed to the spot he stood prior to his leap. Jyovic Bone appeared before her, holding her in place, turning to look at the others, "Continue with the ceremony; leave Heima to me."
With a nod, the next person in the line placed the urn on the brook, watching it disappear. After a few more urns went along the brook, another person jumped into it, dissolving as she approached the end. In the meantime, Jyovic Bone had brought Heima outside, dropping her a fair distance away.
"Stay," The building vibrated, his anger vibrating the molecules in the air, the increase in their kinetic energy igniting them. He looked at Heima, looking like he would kill her any second.
"The only reason I am tolerating your existence is due to Ancestor Light's command. Don't provoke me."
"And I keep telling you, I am Heima Bone. I am only connected to that person, I haven't changed." She replied, her voice cracking in fear. Her eyes then turned complacent, her lips curled up in a sneer, "Or, does that mean you have no issues with offending me?"
"You should know it by now." Jyovic Bone snorted, retracting his aura as he retreated. With a wave of his hand, he calmed the surroundings, turning it back to normal.
He snapped his fingers, making a subtle change in the area, creating a faint domain, undetectable to the ordinary senses. Heima's expression changed, morphing into one of surprise as her legs began to melt.
"What the hell are you doing?" She screamed, the attack making her unable to react. She had lost control of her legs, only having the option to watch them melt. Her hands too followed suit, melting like wax caught under a flame.
"I've been thinking," Ignoring her shouts, Jyovic Bone continued with his monologue, "What is it that I've been pursuing all these years? Is it strength? Is it fame and money? Or is it familial bonds? Do you know the answer?"
"Isn't it strength? You are the type to kill your own son to finish your experiments. Strength is the only thing you care about." Heima screamed, her behaviour changing. The way she spoke, her body language, and the way she looked at her surroundings changed in a subtle manner, oscillating between the two.
"Wrong," Jyovic Bone smiled, "What I pursue is mental peace. Gaining strength is just a means to an end; it is not and has never been my goal. After you appeared yesterday and spoke about Jyorta, it made me think. I then requested to communicate with Ancestor Light and the two of us came to a conclusion."
"W-What?" Heima stammered, her expression distorting. Then, as if sensing something, she turned towards her back, gazing at an old man who had appeared behind her at some point in time.
"We are no longer interested in cooperating with you. I feel like your dissociative personality disorder is making you slip away from humanity, making you a threat to us humans." The old man, whose existence looked like one from a painting said.
"Light!" She screamed, fear stemming from the depths of her heart.
"I am still the one in control. You should know better." Heima said, stopping all means of struggle, no longer showing concern to the state of her body.
"Deific Inference, an Unranked Skill I created just to monitor your existence." Rhachis Ancestor Light smiled, taking out an item from his pocket. It was a crystal lens; its edges were shaped into a pentagon that emitted a yellow hue. The lens had mysterious symbols flashing across it, occasionally forming patterns that resembled a torch or a lantern.
"Unranked Skills cannot be extracted after death, they dissipate with the owner," Heima spoke, the shock paralysing her mind, her gaze lingering on the item in his hand.
"From today onwards, it is possible, thanks to the man behind you." Rhachis Ancestor Light held the crystal lens on his palm, making it stand on its edges, its curved surface facing Heima. A gentle light appeared from his hand, entering the lens and emerging on the other, its convergence focusing on the forehead of Heima.
"Kyaak," Heima screamed; pale blue light appeared behind her, forming into her. It soon branched into many figures, each breaking down and creating new faces. To the very end, the corporal form of a lady appeared, one that barely resembled a human.
Possessing 10 heads and a body composed of 10 spines, it was an unbalanced figure; fat at the centre and lean at the bottom, making her two legs look like twigs. Of the 10 heads, 6 were composed of Frenzy Beasts, their sizes huge as compared to the human heads.
Of the 10 spines, one was at the centre, resembling the traits of a human, surrounded by 5 other human-sized spines. To the end were four spines, their sizes dwarfing her entire body, creating huge arcs that protruded her body, joining below her neck.
The head of what had once been a beautiful woman was affixed in the middle, connected to the spine that ran along the centre. She blinked her eyes, her gaze penetrating through the corporal form, falling on Rhachis Ancestor Light.
Except for the area on the floor where his foot rested, the rest began to crack, showing signs of melting. They decomposed, emitting a putrid stench, seeping further into the building.
Jyovic Bone waved his hands, his energy seeping into the floor, controlling the bones that made up the entirety of the underground structure. He hurriedly reconstructed the damaged parts, making the surrounding healthy counterparts occupy the region, offsetting the corrosion.
"The fact that you can display your presence through her soul," Rhachis Ancestor Light smiled, his eyes flashing with a cunning gaze, "Implies that you are quite close to my city."
The corporeal figure turned silent, gazing at the figure of Rhachis Ancestor Light with seriousness. She then noticed him looking at the ceiling, a calm expression plastered on his face.
"Marble," His voice, carrying with it a tone of authority resounded, making her heart palpitate for reasons unknown, "Do it!"
…
Sector 3, Ring 4; a man dressed in military uniform walked towards a conference room, planning to deliver a lecture. Held in his hands was a stack of paper, filled with information that documented efficient ways to counter the Frenzy Beasts.
He had just pushed the double door leading to the conference room when a faint magenta formed on the skin of his right hand. Shocked, he raised his left, noticing it suffer the same; his skin turned magenta, its surface hardening, turning tougher than any material he had encountered to date.
'No, this looks just like the material that makes up the city walls.' He screamed, revealing his aura in full intensity. Five psychic arms appeared around him, showcasing his powers as a Sky Controller. They immediately turned yellow, resisting the invasion of the magenta, showing signs of stopping it.
An oppressive aura, filled with a terrifying might entered his body, breaking past all the psychic barriers he had erected, destroying his five arms that had turned yellow.
"Ancestor Marble!" He screamed, his expression one of despair, turning into a sculpture in the next second. With a thud, he fell on the floor, creating small cracks on it. A team of soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes hurriedly approached the sculpture, retrieving it without any commotion.
In another part of the city, atop the city walls, a Tier 4 Shifter jumped over the city walls, proceeding to intercept a Frenzy Beast that approached through the air. Just when he was about to clash with it, his body turned into a sculpture, crashing into the beast, and dying without a sound.
A team of soldiers hurriedly intercepted the Frenzy Beast, allocating another team to retrieve the sculpture that had fallen on the ground, having not suffered a single crack.
A formless wave erupted from Central Command, spreading until the outermost city walls—the 10th Ring. It even expanded a kilometre into the Wild Zone, encompassing the entire area where humans moved about, creating situations like above all across the city.
…
"Y-You…You…" The corporeal figure behind Heima stuttered, her eyes spewing venom, mimicked by her other nine heads.
"Y-You what? Please speak human." Rhachis Ancestor Light mocked, imitating her voice. "This is just the beginning. It took me many decades after creating Deific Inference and cultivating a Sky Controller, retrieving the Unranked Skill cultivated to Tier 5 from his body after death. Thanks to Jyovic Bone here, I could move it forward by a decade."
"The others will not leave this alone." The corporeal figure said, regaining her composure. "They will pursue this matter. Without me around, contact with the other cities will become impossible. Humanity will become cornered, vanishing one after the other like snuffed out candles."
"We are aware." Rhachis Ancestor Light shook his head, letting out a sigh, feeling a formless pressure fill the hallways. "If you had only fused your body with humans, we would have turned a blind eye to your existence, giving tacit approval to your deeds like how we did over the decades. But, you had to pull the Frenzy Beasts into it. The moment you did was when we stopped tolerating your existence."
Rhachis Ancestor Light waved his hands, producing formless energy, condensed into a blade, thin enough to sever any matter, down to its atomic bonds. The blade flew towards Heima, entering her forehead, flashing all across her body. Immediately, a change occurred in the projection behind her.
Except for the projection that looked like her, the rest were severed, their connection to her disrupted, completely cut off. The other projections were shattered into the tiniest of particles, until they lost their cohesiveness, dissipating into energy.
The corporeal figure was the last to suffer the brunt of the force, shrieking as she retreated, abandoning the rest of the projections she had carried with her, making them act as her shield, trying to buy time.
Seeing her dissipating figure, just before she had completely disappeared, Rhachis Ancestor Light opened his mouth, looking like he wanted her to escape in the first place. "It wasn't me who proposed this plan in the first place."
A confused expression appeared on her face as she gazed at his smile, one that sent chills creep up her spine. The moment she disappeared, Heima began gasping for air, her body soaked with sweat, feeling a sense of exhaustion stemming from deep within her.
"As you wanted, I severed Heima's connection with her. Though, it was only possible since she had been parasitized just recently, making the invasion over her soul only being of the surface level. Any later, and she would have lost her ego, completely assimilated into the collective subconscious of that lady."
"The price for this will be deducted from your contributions. I hope you are ready to accept the outcome." Rhachis Ancestor Light said, a smile etched on his face.
"I accept it," Jyovic Bone bowed, his eyes red. He hugged a dazed Heima, pulling her into his embrace, a relieved expression flashing across his face. "The least I could do is reclaim her child."
"She should have no abnormalities starting today. I have perfectly severed her connection." Rhachis Ancestor Light said with a laugh, "This is good though. In order to deepen the connection, she had approached our city in close proximity. I should go and personally greet her."
With a flash of light, Rhachis Ancestor Light disappeared from the hallway. Even with his heightened senses, he couldn't detect his movement speed. "As expected of the fastest human," He mumbled.
"What…happened?" Heima regained consciousness, confusion evident in her expression. She blinked at him, etching his face to memory, the change in her expression bringing a smile to his face.
"How much do you remember?" Jyovic Bone inquired, gazing at Heima's face with scrutiny, trying to sense her emotional upheavals.
"…everything. I remember everything I did in the past few months. I also remember strange facts originating from 'Them' about the plans they were devising." Heima replied.
"Tell me more about it. You regaining your sense of self is a joyous occasion but, we need to know the plans of that person so that we can warn Ancestor Light. Tell me everything you know." Jyovic Bone said.
"Okay," Heima replied, beginning to recount all the bits and pieces of information she had received from when she had been a subsoul.
…
10th Ring, Sector 7; soldiers were stationed on the city walls, defending against the waves of Frenzy Beasts consisting of Tier 2 Frenzy Beasts, occasionally spotting a Tier 3 Frenzy Beast in the mix. Since the strength and number of Frenzy Beasts were relatively lower than the average, the soldiers were relaxed, throwing out attacks only when necessary.
"It would be nice if I could nab a Tier 4 Frenzy Beast and get promoted." An Esper said, controlling a chakram to sever the head of a Tier 2 Beast. Spinning the sharp-edged chakram, he sent it through the waves of Beasts, severing their bodies like a meat grinder.
"Tier 4 Frenzy Beasts are on a whole different level. It would be a wonder if your attacks can make it sneeze." Another Esper replied, followed by raucous laughter from the nearby soldiers. They passed the time by making fun of each other.
Suddenly, an enormous floating city appeared a kilometre away from the city walls, floating in the air. Its enormous figure cast a long shadow on the ground below, darkening the entire region, making it seem as if night had approached unannounced.
The appearance of the floating city made the hearts of the soldiers lurch, prompting them to enact a battle-ready stance, sending distress signals to Central Command, reporting the situation.
One of the soldiers gazed at the floating city, seemingly recalling something from his memories. He suddenly shouted, "Isn't that the Lost City? Why is it here?"
"Lost City?"
"That is Lost City? One of the six strongholds of humanity?"
The surrounding soldiers discussed, some displaying a relieved expression. If the city spanning a radius of 10 kilometres turned out to be a Frenzy Beast, they would probably be doomed.
The air stirred as a suffocating feeling permeated through the surroundings; a massive arm—formed from psychic energy, magenta in colour—appeared over Central Command. In the next second, it appeared before the Lost City, slamming against it.
If you find it difficult to remember the power scale, do refer to the auxiliary chapter I had posted at the beginning of the book.
It contains the power scale for both Warriors and Espers.
Anda mungkin juga menyukai
Komentar Paragraf
Fitur komentar paragraf sekarang ada di Web! Arahkan kursor ke atas paragraf apa pun dan klik ikon untuk menambahkan komentar Anda.
Selain itu, Anda selalu dapat menonaktifkannya atau mengaktifkannya di Pengaturan.
MENGERTI