ALL NOVEL Chapter 63: Providence
My blade met the puppets and it felt like my arms would snap under the pressure. I was forced to one knee and just barely held on the sword. The next second all four mental blades met their target. Each blade embedded itself into the puppet and then released a burst of mental energy. My vision blurred as the world around me faded in and out. For a moment I forgot where or who I was. The next effect faded and I was returned to the battle. Once again I didn't get any kill energy so I brought my blade to the puppet's neck and decapitated it one motion. I didn't relax until its head hit the ground. I rapidly collected the armor, robes, weapon, and ring before I took off through the woods. There was no way someone hadn't heard or felt that battle which meant I couldn't be here.
I pushed spiritual energy into my feet to slightly boost my speed. The forest tore by me until I came across a river. I changed directions, hoping that the summer with the Boy Scouts would help me and that the center of a battlefield would be close to water. I ran for another hour before something changed I ran across three separate groups of guards. Two of them were from the same side as the monstrously powerful one while the third was "on my side". I was forced into a four-on-six battle as the two sides clashed. To make the situation worse the more of my mental attacks I used the more my disguise started to fail. I wasn't sure if the puppets were conscious enough to realize something was wrong or if they just knew that they all were supposed to be warriors. I was forced to activate **Apportation** as soon as the spell came off cool down to avoid being attacked by all nine of them.
I stepped out of the portal and swallowed two of my healing pills. The pills got to work healing two slash wounds in my right and left legs but there was something wrong. The wounds had tao in them and the pills couldn't heal them. It was like the injury resisted the medicine. I crawled toward a stone wall and placed my back against it. I pulled energy into my body as fast as I could while also helping the pills to do their jobs. I was forced to swallow two more pills before they succeeded in patching me up. By the time I was finished, I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to crawl into a deep dark hole.
I groaned as I diverted energy into my dantian. I passed my mind through the new ring and found it wasn't as impressive. Nearly half of the ring was missing. It was just a void of empty nothingness. The rest of it was spirit stones and a strange-looking plant. I transferred all of them into my new ring and then left the bad one. The darkness in the ring reminded me of something that Desbera mentioned. That the space was collapsing and that it would eventually be destroyed. I wasn't sure if that ring had a week left or another decade but I had other problems. A quick check told me that my new ring was doing just fine so I turned and started walking. There was so much to explore in this plane and I was starting to look forward to it.
Two days passed as I pushed toward the heart of the plane. I was forced into four more battles, two of which I was forced to flee from. I managed to collect another set of robes but no more rings. It was becoming clear that these soldiers weren't equally equipped. I wasn't sure if that was because of personal wealth or some sort of forced hierarchy and it didn't matter. The robes were at least as good as my first set which made them perfect for people who didn't go to the tutorial or who didn't do well. During my time trapped here, I realized that I couldn't contact the outside world. Not only were my previous connections broken, I couldn't form new ones. I assumed that meant the spell didn't work across dimensions, either that or the puppets were stopping me. I guess it could also be the System but I couldn't come up with a reason why it would do that.
Regardless I pushed forward until I stood at the rim of a massive crater. The crater had to be at least a square mile but it was probably closer to three. The sheer scale of the destruction was breathtaking. There was also a passive killing intent flowing out of a hole in the middle. From this distance, I couldn't tell if it went straight down or if it was more like a burrow. Either way, I had to keep going. I slid down the side of the crater and was forced into a strange slide run until I was level. As soon as I got within a mile of the hole the killing intent exploded toward me. My mind blanked as a murderous rage consumed everything. The world was bathed in red and I felt myself being pulled away from my body. The anger was like an ocean of bodies, each one dragging me down.
I circulated the taos of adamance and lucidity through my mind until everything snapped back into place. I could feel the intent battering at the edges of my consciousness like an army breaking through the gates. I activated Apportation and climbed through the portal as fast as I could. The mental refresh was like being doused in ice-cold water. It was enough to bring me back from the brink but it was nowhere near enough to make me confident at dealing with whatever was in the hole. The portal opened and I was forced to step out into mid-air. I grabbed hold of a stalactite as I took in the situation.
I was suspended more than a hundred feet in the air. Below me was a running river of dark blue water and solid stone. There were enough stalactites to get me around half the way to the ground before I would have to jump and I had already used Apportation. I couldn't help but chuckle at the ridiculousness of the situation. This was the kind of shit that happened in movies and with actors hooked up to lines. I mentally mapped out a path forward that would bring me as close to the ground as possible. I then double and triple-checked it before I took my first leap. I felt like Spider-man as I leaped from stalactite to stalactite. After the first few leaps, the fear was replaced with elation. I was doing something that by all rights was insane. Not only was I doing it, it was easy.
It only took me a few seconds to reach the midway point. I gripped the stone with one hand while bracing my feet against it. The next part was going to be the most insane. I had tested my Tao field and was pretty sure that it wasn't hard for me. I wasn't sure why that was the case but I secretly hoped it was always true. I looked at the water and stone beneath me and fought back the wave of panic. The fear of jumping and replaced with a comforting hunger. The desire to test myself and reach my limits. Once my heart had calmed I took a deep breath and pushed off. I rose into the air for a second before I was in complete free fall.
The wind rushed by me as the ground rapidly came into focus. My eyes watered and I counted down the seconds. My laughter sounded psychotic as my fear and anxiety melted. When I felt it was time I expanded my tao field to its maximum. The sudden presence of the tao caused the air to tremble and the stone to break. I felt pure elation as my plan worked! My descent slowed. It wasn't quite flying nor was it levitation it was like the air itself or rather the tao was pushing me up. Like I had grown new limbs and could use them to slow my descent. I calculated the speed of my fall and changed the angle slightly. I braced myself for impact just before I crashed into the water below.
The water hit me like a truck. The air was forced out of my lungs and for a moment I forgot everything. The fear, the joy, the need to survive all of it faded as my mind blanked. My wits returned in the next moment and I was forced to fight against primal panic. I twisted in the water trying to remind myself which direction was up or down. I pushed the strand of adamance into my exhausted mind and forced myself to calm down. The water was clear and I could see the bottom. I just needed to swim. I just need to be calm. It took me another ten seconds to get the hang of moving while underwater but once I did I braced against the closest wall and pushed off. Kick, push, kick, push, kick push, I finally broke the surface of the water and took in a breath of air.
I reached its bank a few seconds later and looked up at the stone above me. The gap felt both massive and small. I couldn't believe that I had just jumped from up there but now that I did a part of me couldn't wait to find the next challenge. I wasn't sure how long I lay there until I decided to get up. A quick check told me my quest wasn't finished and I would be fucked if the killing intent returned. I rolled my shoulders and shook myself as dry as I could. I then started following the river. It didn't take me long to piece together what must have happened. If this was the site of a massive battle then the two powerful beings must have been their nuclear weapons. When they attacked each other it either destroyed the rest of the world or somehow separated this area from the rest of it.
After that either all the soldiers died and then were somehow reanimated as the puppets or they were somehow possessed by the killing intent? That was the only part that didn't make sense. It was more than possible that there was more to killing intent than I understood but reanimation seemed like a stretch. It could also be an ability of one of the two warriors. The fact that I hadn't encountered either of those warriors as corpse puppets further convinced me that they were at the center of this thing. Which only made me more concerned about what the System wanted. There was no way it thought I could kill either of them. If I unleashed my entire load out I doubt I could scratch them unless their souls were already half dead.
My thoughts stopped as I stepped through a half-destroyed wall. What I saw made my blood run cold and every rational part of me told me to turn around. The chamber was massive and in the middle of it were two corpses, both impaled one with a spear and the other with a sword. The bodies were mostly skeletal at this point and their gear lacked any spirituality. It was like they were wearing old clothes from before the System arrived. Those were all secondary concerns. As a person was floating in the air above both bodies. The person was clearly dead or at least some sort of ghost and they looked like someone had cut them in two vertically. My brain worked at a mile a minute as I tried to process what happened. The only logical explanation denied all logic.
The two warriors had somehow been split in half and then combined. The being in front of me had a feminine right half and a masculine left. The person wore an outfit that was a combination of both robes. I tried to find a seam in either the clothing or the spirit but there was nothing. Before I could do anything more the spirit opened its eyes. My mind blanked as we stared at each other. I felt the spirit scan my soul and then something lifted me into the sky. It felt like a monster had reached into my chest and grabbed hold of my very being. I released my tao and my killing intent hoping that either of them would be enough to free me from this monster. Neither helped. In the next moment, I was ripped through the air until I floated in front of the spirit. Its eyes were cold and curious as if I was a specimen to be poked and prodded.
"What are you? There shouldn't be any primordials left." The being's voice was wrong. It sounded like two voices were placed on top of each other. One male and one female. Just hearing it made my soul feel like it was going to be split in two. "I should kill you but I should also protect you. I don't know what to do with you." The spirit said those words like they were nothing to it. Like it was discussing the weather or whether or not it liked ice cream and not my fate.
"Ah, your soul is so feeble." There was a pause and then it was like someone had turned the volume up on the TV. I became aware of everything. I could hear the water in the other room, I could hear my heartbeat. I could have sworn I could hear my hair moving in the air. "You should be able to converse now."
I blinked and tried to open my mouth. When that didn't work I activated **Ethereal Convocation**. Instead of my words going through the soul, it came out with words. I grimaced as I tried to process what was going on. "Who are you?" I asked. My voice bounced around the cave like I had just spoken into a megaphone.
"I don't know. My previous lives have ended and I no longer know who they were. Nor do I know if I am them." I stared at it not sure how to proceed from that. "You have not answered my question. What are you? I am confident that the primordial humans were dead."
"I am not sure," I said slowly. "I was born on earth. It's a planet that didn't have spiritual energy. The System arrived and this place got added to the planet."
"The System?" A new pressure wrapped around my soul in the next moment. My eyes widened as it felt like thousands of tiny hands reached out and pressed against me from every side. I tried to push against them, to scream to do anything but it was like a child fighting a tidal wave. The sensation only lasted a few seconds but it felt like my very essence had been laid bare.
"The celestial will? It still exists." For the first time since our conversation began, there was emotion genuine emotion in the thing's eyes. I couldn't tell if it was elation or hatred. I wasn't even sure if the spirit knew what it felt. "Perhaps it is providence that you are here. Perhaps you are a gift from the heavens but there is so little I can do. Your cultivation so too low for a proper impartment."
I blinked in confusion as a storm of questions ran through my mind. What the fuck was the celestial will? No, no it sounded like this thing was trying to reward me. "Can you be a spirit for an object? I read something about weapons having spirits. Could you do that?"
The spirit stared at me for a moment and shook its head. "No, you don't have any objects strong enough to endure my soul—"
"The demi-plane!" I blurted out. I blinked in confusion at the thought. I wasn't sure where it came from but now that I had it. It seemed obvious. A spirit like this should be able to possess an entire planet if it wanted. It could even control the puppets. This place could be a training ground.
"I can sense that you do not control the plane nor do you have the strength to conquer its spirits. It would be pointless for me to do so."
"What if I can? I've had spiritual energy for less than six months. That isn't even two hundred days and look at me. I am at the top of the Standings. I am the strongest human on the planet. Probably the strongest living thing." I blinked in confusion as genuine panic shot through me. I tried to circulate the strand of adamance to calm down but it didn't help. Why did I want this?
"Very well. If you can dominate this planet in the limited time I have left. I will become the planar spirit of this world. I will not help you."