บท 576: Chapter 576
I pull a teleport crystal from my item storage and crush it in my fist.
The cloud of divine energy below me is impossible for me to pass through, so this is the fastest and only way down I can foresee.
A flash of light envelops my whole being seconds before the void of nothingness makes the very platform I stood on a moment ago disappear like it never existed.
My assumption is if I'm caught up in this too, I'll dissolve away and return to the real world outside of this construct; however, there are multiple reasons why I don't want to test this theory out for myself.
The first is in the case that it may not act the same now that the construct is disappearing for good. Being caught up in the dissolving mass isn't something I want to test out the end result of. Secondly, I want to leave through the rift itself to meet the association as a normal applicant and not cause any extra unnecessary suspicion. Lastly, I still have many things I want to do inside before it fades away completely.
As my body materializes down by the ocean shore at the top of the mountain where I left my teammates, I immediately locate them with my Rising Emperor's Domain.
They're all less than 50km away farming red cores on the cliffsides like it is just another day.
I let out an immense wave of telepathy that's enhanced by the yellow threads of divine energy surging through my body.
It calls for them all to come back to the platform, and that I have an urgent update for them.
At the same time, the purple threads that were creeping up my hand from the ring before now cover my shoulder, and are making their way over my chest.
They feel warm, but I'm certain they aren't harmful, and the energy isn't bonding with me or deteriorating my flesh like the green energy did before.
After a few seconds, I see my teammates making their way back toward me in my enemy detection skill and their geolocations.
None of them are in range to respond to me with telepathy, but they definitely heard my message.
While their points converge on me, the purple threads cover my chest, surround my core, and then start spreading all over my head and down toward the rest of my body too.
It feels like a warm skin-tight blanket is being wrapped around me.
It seeps into my eyes, covers my arms and legs, then pulses in a light purple hue before completely vanishing.
The bright glowing ring on my finger changes from a blinding attention-catching item to dark purple, similar to the massive crystal's original dormant color, almost black and not eye-catching at all on my finger.
The artifact has bonded with me and activated.
I feel the same high-pitched ringing sound that I did when Ember's limiter was placed on me, but instead of having to control my output manually, this limiter feels as if it's completely intertwined with my being and instincts.
Purple threads cover my body in a thick layer; however, they're completely invisible.
I look down at my chest, and even to me, it looks as if my divine core is completely gone.
I raise an eyebrow because it feels like I'm still able to use my yellow threads of energy at full power, and even turn to the ocean while pulling out my sword to test the theory.
In a single slash, I let out a yellow wave of energy, and my entire being pulses bright yellow, exposing the presence of my core for a split second while I let out the attack.
The moment I stop and put my sword away, the appearance of me being unawakened and powerless comes back.
I try the same exact thing for my mana control aura output, as well as soul energy and raw Qi as well.
I'm extremely glad I trained with Ember for days before coming to this exam to learn what certain mana control levels feel like, because the purple-cored limiter I'm wearing acts in a similar fashion.
Whatever skills or powers I actively am showing during an active attack are shown in their full glory. However, when I'm standing at rest, the artifact acts as a cloaking device almost. An invisible veil that suppresses all energy coming off of it to the eyes of an outsider.
It takes me almost a full minute to get the hang of things before I see Nat, Dane, and Marcie all flying my way after hearing my message.
The air magic user and spear-wielding tank look and carry themselves almost exactly the same as I left them before.
Both of their mana controls have far surpassed a billion, making them at the peak of the B-Class hunters. At the rate they've been farming these past few weeks, each of them should have hundreds of red fragments.
They're completely clean of divine energy, as it's clear Nat has been healing them and taking the threads that invade their bodies.
Coming up the rear in their flight path, I see the white-haired healer covered in a bright red aura of threads from cleansing them after their last kill.
She activates her healing magic, drinks a regeneration potion, then uses her daggers to channel the excess energy and eject it with a few flaming crescents into the sky.
All three of them drift down to meet me on the shore with a whole new aura of confidence about them.
I speak up once they hit the ground.
"To sum things up, I made it to the top and claimed this construct's ultimate prize. It's about to collapse in on itself, and I think it's best we don't wait for that to happen."
All of their eyes open wide while I look up at the sky, then back down at them.
"So, it's time to wrap things up. I don't know if we have seconds, minutes, or hours left; but it's best not to leave things to chance."
I turn to the ocean, thinking about the black orbs that fell from the islands in the sky days ago when the green serpent destroyed the floating obsidian forests.
Nat speaks up to break my train of thought.
"What about you? Are you coming with us? -And where's Emrie?"
I nod, but still look out into the ocean.
"Yeah- I'll be following right after you. Emrie... is on his way too. I just need to check one last thing."
Marcie nods.
"Very well, don't have to tell me twice."
Then, takes a crystal out from her item storage.
Dane does the same, nodding with a smile and letting the teleport crystal hover above his hand with wind magic.
"We've farmed more than enough to win this thing. We already wiped out our only competition."
I smile, then turn to the teleport platform about 50 meters away and point a hand toward it.
"Good."
Without warning, I let a fireball out from my palm wrapped in yellow threads of divine energy and it obliterates every bit of evidence I created one in the first place, leaving a round crater in its place.
All three of their eyes widen as they realize what kind of energy I just used, but none of them say a word about it.
"I'll be destroying the one near the rift before I leave too. Just in case this construct spits out any foreign matter, I don't want any evidence left behind. That means I need your extra teleport crystals too. It's better if the Apex Region doesn't find out I have access to these items when they search you."
I turn back and each of them gives me any extra teleport crystals they have remaining, leaving only one that leads back to the remaining platform.
"We'll speak again after the B-Class awards ceremony. I'm in quite the hurry right now."
They say a quick goodbye, slightly confused at my sudden words and appearance; but there's too many things to explain and not enough time to do so. It's better they just leave and I can give a proper explanation once reality around me isn't disappearing at an unknown rate.
The three of them crush their crystals and I launch myself off deep into the sea.
My yellow footsteps are left behind in the air, and my yellow core pulses giving off light every time I take a step, but I feel invisible in between strides.
While covering dozens of kilometers and putting out a wide perception aura, I really get to learn the capabilities of my new limiter to an even deeper level.
I find that after the initial pulse of my perception aura's activation, I can still perceive things far away while being under the full stealth of my limiter.
Using self-regeneration, or any of my stat-boosting buffs that stay inside my body can also be used at their full power without even a drop of mana, qi, or divine threads from leaking through.
The only downside I face is when I continuously test out my attacks the bright yellow glow of divine energy leaks out. Even if I don't use my full power, anyone that is knowledgeable enough and has high enough perception can see that there is something suspicious happening here. Not just anyone can awaken a yellow core.
Every airstep I take pushes me further into the open ocean, hundreds of kilometers fly by, and over an hour of travel time passes before I have another breakthrough.
After using the limiter so much on autopilot, I begin to feel the layers of purple threads wrapped around and through me ripple and ring ever so slightly every time they allow energy to seep through.
Over time I begin to dissect the different feelings that allow each energy to pass through and begin to both consciously and subconsciously control the output with far better consistency.
It gets to the point where I can have the limiter completely cover the core of my choosing, and dampen that power if I please.
Instead of throwing a yellow fireball from my fist that's strengthened by countless yellow threads, making its weight on reality almost ten times as dense; I'm also able to release an unaltered dark red fireball from my fist as well.
It's far weaker than my full power, but the yellow divine threads are just held behind the invisible barrier and processed through my body instead of being combined with the attacks.
This takes quite a lot of practice, but while continuing my search of the seemingly endless open ocean; it's the most productive thing to do.
I practice doing this with my perception aura too, activating my greater form and testing its capabilities with the limiter; using divine energy to search far and wide while also making sure I can still use a pure mana perception aura and also one of Soul Energy too.
Hours pass, and every airstep I take makes me feel like the danger from above is getting closer and closer.
At the same time, I feel as if I've completely mastered the limiter gifted by the creator of this construct.
With all this time passing and no change in the environment, it feels as if I'll never get a reading or find what I'm looking for. I even think about turning back and using a teleport crystal to leave and follow the others.
However, two equally eerie phenomena hit my senses at exactly the same time. They make me realize I can't turn back now when I'm so close to getting what I came for.
The first is a very familiar one, however on a far larger scale.
The disintegration of reality flows into my senses from above, as a total lack of mass and space is shown to me in my enemy detection and all-seeing eye skill.
Where there was endless empty sky before, now a black void descends from above.
It is massive, getting larger and larger with every second that passes, like the top of the dome-shaped world I'm living in is melting away.
What's remaining is an endless black void, but that is just what my brain fills in to conceptualize the fact that there is in fact nothing remaining. We're already in a constructed world outside of space itself, there is only the absence of mass and energy beyond this collapsing reality.
I should crush a crystal right now to leave, but far out in the ocean, I also see a dense black forest floating on the calm waves. From their newly grown branches, countless red fruits grow and shimmer while scavenger birds fly around them in circles and perch on their slowly growing branches that reach back up toward the sky.
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Author's Note:
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