I can’t move.
My mind is processing the images before me, but it feels like time has slowed to a stop…
At least to my body, and certain physical aspects of my soul.
My active mind in this hyper-focused, yet calming enlightened state is completely conscious. I can feel Maria’s mind and parts of her soul taking in the scene before us too, as though we’re the only observers of this strange new reality.
Red Celestial Fire still flows out from my feet into the floor to fill the statue. Once it hits its maximum luminosity, the extra celestial energy fills out the floor below me.
However, it only flows down a few centimeters.
I watch it flow outward and stain half of the ground red, while Maria’s icy blue energy collides with it at the center.
Instead of clashing, the two energies mix as though they are the same, creating pathways of least resistance through each other’s auras to flow up through our feet and into our soul energy cores. Even the statues behind us begin to absorb the other’s energy, and cycle it back out as refined and more pure.
This becomes an intuitive process as the massive white pillar below is packed with High-Quality Ether, and even looks as though it’s becoming even more dense with it than the rift above us.
The white glow from it stretches out further and further into the Ravine. At first only a million kilometers, but as time seems to pass, the bright glow lights up every single deep valley and cave throughout this dark prison.
I cannot see it with my own senses, but there is a strange resonance beneath my feet that shows me every little detail of the zone outside.
There are millions of Demons and Dragons. Commoners to Nobles, all turning our way no matter where they are in the ravine. All of a sudden, they are able to see and obtain a sense of direction. They’re drawn toward the light that has given them sight.
On top of this pillar, the invisible walls that connect it to the rift above become more and more saturated with floating particles of high-quality ether, making it glow just as bright white as the solid mass of stone below us.
Even though the air is thick, I can sense everything in it, with perfect clarity.
The Void Creeper stands with one of its long legs stood in each of our celestial energy pools. It flows right through the dark black energy like it is not even there. It is almost like a hologram, but I’m certain it’s real.
It only looks this way because my mind cannot comprehend what this being is hiding.
It is the same sensation I felt while trying to look into the center of Maria’s Soul energy core in the past. There is a secret of the universe within, and it’s hiding its ability to be seen with an energy I can’t even sense.
Despite its real bodily makeup being hidden, I can tell it’s extremely densely packed with raw mana by the aura’s natural residue alone.
That is all I thought a Void Creeper was… pure mana. Ember never elaborated much in the past, only calling them creatures that live between space, and drained dungeons of their mana. Yet, I do remember him also stating that the so-called Titans we faced back on the human world’s dungeons were the lowest ranked Void Creepers, and there are others much stronger.
I never ran into any more in Labyrinths, nor have I even found any sign of them in other worlds once my Rising Emperors system connected to them.
However, now, I’m certain whatever this entity is that has torn through space during our legacy ritual’s activation, is one of those higher-ranked Void Creepers.
Not only is the sheer amount of pure mana coming off its being as pure aura residue absurd, but it gives off other readings of Divine Energy and ether.
I can’t sense any individual threads, nor any cores in its body. The only tells I have are the fact that the 5-faced clock is being powered by its own internal energy. There are yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple threads all tethering this mechanism to reality from deep within this Void Creeper.
I even sense the presence of silver threads holding it together, High-Quality Ether allowing it to exist within this legacy construct, but not interfere with its ongoing ether commands.
Not only that, but the growing invisible soul bonds tether both Maria and myself to the statues and this Void Creeper within this enclosed space.
I cannot tell what senses are being activated, it is like my intuition has been lifted to an astronomical degree beyond my energy capabilities. Everything that happens before me makes total sense, yet I have no idea why.
Time is passing outside this pillar of light. I can tell by the speed at which Demons and Dragons are flying toward us.
We all stand completely still, and to my bodily functions, and age of my soul, it feels as though mere seconds have passed, but I can see some of the commoner Demons traveling hundreds of kilometers…
Days pass on the outside.
As soon as I notice this fact, I feel the increase in my Celestial Energy purity, and an even deeper soul bond with Maria. The invisible tie between us has grown heavier and stronger somehow…
The Void Creeper only stands with its long limbs by its sides, and the clock faces all spinning at different speeds facing forward.
I zone out again as the calming waves of High-Quality Ether flow through my senses.
Months pass… I can tell because some of the Nobles and even lower-class demons have finally made it to the white pillar.
Maria and I killed everything within a million kilometers or so with our auras alone when we went out to explore after killing that Royal.
The moment I realize that time has gone by, I feel our Celestial Energy become even more pure… The soul bond is deepening so much, that even my Royal Vibrations are starting to alter. It triggers a memory of the peak of that Ancient Royal’s Vibrations when it still believed it was the ruler of the Ravine, and I tap into this confidence myself to make full use of this moment of enlightenment.
Unlike the Demon, we’ve actually found the secrets to this temple, and can become far more than it ever did. I conceptualize its peak of strength of Royal Vibrations, and surpass it instantly, progressing in seconds what it achieved in millions of years, then fall back into a trance.
Years begin to pass by.
More and more Demons emerge from the Ravine, drawn toward the pillar of light, and become blinded by its glory once they get too close.
They become true mindless Demons and Dragons, and charge into the pillar’s base from all sides, coming from every corner of the Ravine.
Instead of bouncing off, they are taken in like a source of energy for a growing fire.
The High-Quality ether form below filters the mass and celestial energy donated by these tributes, and carries it up the tower. It is borderline Low-Quality ether near the bottom, but is refined, compact, and churned into pure white Medium-Quality ether by the time it hits the center of the pillar where we stand.
It perfectly matches the purity of Celestial Energy we are currently processing, and is added to our flowing pool.
There are even streams of pure cyan threads, and dark demonic essence being siphoned through the pillar up toward us. Maria’s body drains more of the divine threads than I do, and my corruption devours every last drop of the demonic essence.
This is certainly not a coincidence, there are far too many complex high-quality ether commands syncing this process perfectly for our minds to comprehend.
By the time I take a mental breath again, it’s been over a decade according to my intuition, and progress on my celestial energy pool.
I realize I’ve felt this sensation before…
It was inside the Demon Lord’s Throne Trials back on the human world.
There was a portion of the mental tests, where Ember and I had to withstand isolation within a simulated abyss.
The more I process this sensation, it feels quite similar.
My body and soul are not aging; even my mind is managing to block out the true passage of time. It is like the main processor in our brains are frozen, while energy continues to cycle. Just like when I was in that trial, and my mind withstood hundreds of thousands of years of isolation by simply turning itself off.
At this thought, over a hundred years slip by around us.
Millions of Demons and Dragons disappear into the hot white pillar in the void, and when I come to conscious thought for a moment this time, I get the sense of satiety that rushes through my being.
I feel like I’ve just eaten a massive meal, like all three of my cores are becoming satisfied, and pushing the limits of what is possible in this Cyan Zone.
My corruption has become sharper, and more fluid, and my celestial fire burns so hot and pure, that it is unrecognizable to the dim red flames I wielded before.
Most noticeable of all, my Cyan Core feels like it is close to saturation.
I lose consciousness a final time, and over 850 more years pass in the blink of an eye.
This time, I feel as though I’ve been jolted out from my slumber, rather than a calm and peaceful drift in and out of consciousness.
The Ravine around us has gone silent… and empty.
Every single Demon that could see this pillar, has sacrificed itself into it like a helpless moth to a flame.
The feeling of satiation from before has long passed, now I feel hot all over. My body is constantly breaking itself apart, but my Celestial Fire is strong enough to heal me. Even my cores are all pushing outward and making my head ache and energy pathways burn with tight uncomfortable pressure.
A low ringing sound pierces into my ears. I haven’t felt this since the green zone, when I was creating seals to hold back my power from the outside zone.
Now, it is the limits of my body and mind fighting against some ancient seal placed in this Ravine.
Across from me, I’m watching Maria activate many of her pseudo cores, glowing bright blue in order to withstand this new power too.
The High-Quality ether in the air is still keeping us in a near-hypnotic state, but it is slowly fading away and letting me focus on reality again.
What I witness on the horizon makes my eyes widen, as the visual of a Realm Wave passing us by reveals what broke us out of such a trance.
My next discovery is the fact that all of the 5 faces on the Void Creeper clocks have stopped spinning at different speeds. They now all match at a constant rate.
The Celestial energy in the statues and floor seeps backward, back through our feet into our bodies, and the Void Creeper moves for the first time again in nearly 1000 years.
It tilts its head upward, and the hum around its body intensifies.
The clocks on its face all vibrate with a silver static light, and a rectangular door in space opens above us.
When the yellow clock glows, I see a dark black starry night through the door, and immediately feel countless soul ties triggering in my subconscious to the lower realm. Then, the green clock glows, and as though a slideshow is switching images, the rectangular door now only shows green clouds.
The Void Creeper doesn’t stop to let us enjoy the view at all, it just continues its cycle like a machine, following out a task. The cyan-colored clock glows, and the rift’s internal mechanisms rotate to the next zone, showing a bright white sky and a city of cyan towers, with a massive palace at its back.
I see this as our way out… this is the same exact palace I’ve seen in Miriel’s memories behind Lucian…
Yet, as my eyes widen and I notice this, the Void Creeper activates its Dark Blue clock face.
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