Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

Sorin's vision darkened. His soul separated from his body and appeared in a desolate hellscape. Everywhere he looked, there was fire, ash, and corpses. Weapons, both old and new, were strewn about an endless battlefield belonging to a war that had been raging since before the Divine Era.

"How interesting." A pitch-black humanoid in blood-stained armor appeared before Sorin. "Far more interesting than that boring city they assigned me to. Since remaining there won't do much good any longer, I'll take this body as a consolation prize."

Tens of thousands of threads appeared around Sorin. These were karmic threads that tied him to everyone he knew, including his enemies. The pitch-black humanoid plucked a minor thread off him and placed it on himself. Sorin was immediately faced with the dreadful knowledge that he'd forgotten someone. Likewise, that person had also forgotten him.

"Resisting will only lead to pain," said the creature. "But I am pressed for time, so I shall offer you a bargain. Should you wield to me, Azrakul, Herald of Strife, I will do my utmost to preserve what positive relationships you have and even nurture them. Conversely, I will crush these individuals should you continue this futile resistance."

The humanoid didn't wait for Sorin's answer and made to pluck another thread, only to pause halfway through, ripping it free. "The remnant of a dead god has no power here. Begone, Asclepius. I have no quarrel with you. Go find another inheritor."

The landscape shifted as a black-robed man with serpentine eyes and a coiled snake staff appeared. Poison infected the land he stood on, chasing away all negative elements, including the Herald of Strife's corruption.

"Perhaps if it was someone else, Azrakul, I would do as you say," said Asclepius. "But this man passed my trial with flying colors and even managed to use my testing poison to break the Divine Bone Seal."

Azrakul's head snapped towards Asclepius. "So what if you like him? Every second you manifest is a second lost. Would you forsake your entire lineage for a single individual?"

Azrakul vanished, and so did Asclepius. They reappeared a short distance away from Sorin and clashed multiple times in the blink of an eye. Though the humanoid was on the losing end of each exchange, Asclepius grew a shade paler as a result.

"Sorin, I regret to inform you that I will no longer be able to assist you in inheriting my power," said Asclepius calmly. "The original plan was to challenge you with multiple puzzles and invest you with increasing amounts of my power, but this creature has disrupted those plans."

"There you have it, boy," said Azrakul. "These are the limits of the so-called ancient gods. Once upon a time, they were unrivaled, but now, even a crippled demigod like me has an absolute advantage."

Asclepius shook his head. "You misunderstand, Azrakul. I'm not abandoning the boy. He's far too rare a find for me to give up. Though the seals laid down by my jealous brethren will make his path unimaginably difficult, I have faith that he can undo those that remain using the first two broken seals as a foundation."

A staff appeared overhead and slammed down before Azrakul. Two serpents slithered off the staff and immobilized the herald.

As the pitch-black humanoid struggled to free himself, familiar stars appeared overhead. It was the Ophiuchus constellation, the basis of Ophiuchan Simulation. Its stars winked out one by one, filling Asclepius with strength but simultaneously stripping a layer off Sorin's divine ability.

"I unfortunately have need of the power I stored in Ophiuchus," said Asclepius. "You'll find it much less helpful going forward. But worry not—the knowledge stored within my mortal husk is dated, and you'll be much better off filling it in yourself."

The starlight Asclepius reclaimed transformed into 206 golden needles that pierced into Azrakul, sealing away most of his strength. A golden poison spread across the desolate landscape and broke the barrier between Sorin and his body, sealing away most of the corruption that had been working hard to control Sorin while he was distracted.

"Fifty years," said Asclepius, turning to Sorin. The old man was now barely visible. "The seal will last fifty years, and in that time, you'd better find a way to deal with this tricky demigod."

Sorin opened his mouth to speak and realized just now that the ability to speak had been stripped of him. "He's a herald? A demigod? What does that even mean?"

"You'll discover the answers to these questions in due time, should you survive," said Asclepius. "My time has passed. Yet I can leave you with no regrets because this path you are treading gives me Hope. Hope that our efforts were not in vain. Hope that mistakes once made will not repeat themselves a second time.

"At least answer a few questions before you leave," said Sorin, noting that Asclepius was fading faster than normal. "What are these seals in my body? In the bodies of my companions. Why do they exist? Why did the gods forbid investigating them?"

Asclepius sighed. "These seals are from a time when the Gods thought themselves immortal, Sorin. As for what they are and the reason they exist, this question is far too multifaceted.

"The path you have embarked on involves unleashing humanity's potential to its fullest, so I will give you some hints about how to break the next few seals:

"First, do trust what you see.

"Second, question all assumptions.

"Third, when it comes to cultivation, not everything can be deduced through scientific principles."

These words seemed to invoke some sort of restriction that rapidly drained Asclepius's remaining power. He was now barely visible, a faint mist that would soon vanish in the morning sunlight.

"Silenos Avjerinos Asclepius," spoke the deity as he vanished. "Do not forget what you are."

Sorin's eyes snapped open, and he realized he was now in full control of his body. The Source of Corruption was sealed inside him, and any excess energy had been stripped and sealed away. Sorin immediately projected his soul into the Gate of Initiation that had opened thanks to his breakthrough.

His soul projection combined with the mana and corruption inside his body to form a representative image that could draw on his mana, his spirit, and his physical strength.

Before him stood a short tunnel in the void blocked by a wide stone gate. The door's stone surface was covered in golden patterns.

"When it comes to opening the Gate of Initiation, nothing else matters," spoke Sorin, quoting a passage from the Ten Thousand Poison Canon. "Only strength." He ran up to the gate and punched out with a golden fist. Cracks spread out from the point of impact, delivering a dose of hundred poison acitoxins to the gate that pitted and ate away at the stone wall.

Wham! Wham! Wham!

Three more strikes opened a hole in the stone wall. If he continued in this fashion, creating ten more similar-sized holes with his remaining energy stores wasn't out of the question.

Wait. I need to stop and verify my assumptions. Sorin pulled back and analyzed the situation. Though It's clear that enlarging the hole will be no issue, destroying the golden seal on the door won't be possible with my current approach.

Judging by the appearance of the seal, it was an energy regulator, a limiter on how much energy could be taken in. If Sorin wanted to maximize his potential, he needed to destroy it.

Sorin's next few strikes were, therefore, used to deliver different types of poison into the gate. Though his other poisons weren't as strong as his acitoxins, that didn't mean other poisons wouldn't be effective.

Without Ophiuchan Simulation, calculating the optimal solution is too difficult, thought Sorin. Moreover, this runic matrix is insanely complex; it's not something I can solve in the time remaining for me to break through.

Though he could feel the energy leaking out of him, he sat down to think and reflect on what he knew about the nature of divine seals.

Firstly, they contain large amounts of divine energy, thought Sorin. The method of sealing during the Blood Thickening Stage and the Bone-Forging Stage are also very different. To break the first seal, I had to willingly take corruption into my body, a taboo for any cultivator. To break the second seal, I needed to break away my silver bone runes without knowing the true nature of my original bones.

In other words, these seals contained little traps and tricks. Solving is far from simple. That being said, achieving it becomes much easier once you spot the trick behind it.

Sorin summoned Nemesis in needle form and threw it at the golden matrix instead of the stone wall. While he didn't so much as scratch the matrix, his energy depletion wasn't great.

Got it. This stone's primary function is to absorb and deplete energy. Most cultivators, when faced with this step, will focus all their efforts and destroying the stone. In so doing, they forfeit their chance of breaking the grid that supports it.

Sorin summoned a few dozen more needles and used them to inject poison and corruption at different points in the matrix. By investing ten percent of his energy to perform two hundred trials, he was able to determine some key weaknesses.

Corruption is especially effective against the matrix. Acitoxins are much less so. Necrotoxins, neurotoxins, and hemotoxins are basically useless. Manatoxins, however, look quite promising.

He adjusted his poisons to deliver half manatoxins and half acitoxins, then used serpentine approximation to determine the key nodes. Though the process was tedious and imperfect due to Ophiuchan Simulation having been stripped, he was able to reduce the golden matrix down to a twelve-node simplified model with self-adjusting properties.

It's impossible to break smaller pieces of the matrix. I'll need to destroy the whole thing at once. To do that, I'll need to create additional weaknesses and hope they exceed the matrix's adaptive properties. Fortunately, Madness, Violence, and Strife were well-suited for this sort of application. Sorin directly injected these forces into the matrix and used them to promote mutations, imbalances, and weaknesses. Simultaneously, he applied generous doses of poison that cracked and pitted the tarnished matrix.

Sorin stopped once his energy stores reached fifty percent. The golden matrix was warped and imperfect but still incomparably strong. To stand a chance at breaking it, he would need to unleash everything he had into the next three strikes!

Nemesis transformed into a needle-thin spear. He stabbed the spear into the upper right of the matrix, tearing a deep gouge in the material that immediately began restoring itself.

Sorin used Adder Rush and struck to appear near the lower left portion of the matrix, tore a similar gouge in the opposite position, and once again, the matrix began to recuperate, though the rate at which this was done was significantly lower.

Thirty percent of my energy remains, thought Sorin. I need to give this strike everything I have!

He pulled back his fist and mustered what remained of his energy into a golden gauntlet that he smashed into the gate. The arm that contacted the gate exploded from the strain.

The last thing his spiritual self witnessed was a large-scale spatial collapse. Under the accumulated strain, the golden gate shattered, taking the stone wall it was reinforcing down with it.

A flood of energy burst into Sorin from the depths of Pandora. It was a primal energy filled with strength that replenished his mana stores and invaded every inch of his flesh. Filaments extended from his bones and meridians into his muscles, his tendons, and his organs.

Since Sorin's meridians were fully open and his bones were fully unsealed, these filaments were of extremely high quality. What's more, his Gate of Initiation was fully open, giving him access to far more energy than normal. His cultivation level shot up at a frightening pace. Before he knew it, he'd already reached 5% sanctification.

Sorin quickly discovered that primal energy wasn't the only energy pouring into his body. Large amounts of corruption and divine energy were also entering him. Pandora contained an abundance of both energies. The seal on the Gate of Initiation would normally filter out these energies, protecting them from harm.

As Asclepius said, there are likely many reasons that humanity's potential was sealed away. It's clear that without this limiter, breaking through to the Flesh-Sanctification Relam would be extremely dangerous.

This ability to absorb divinity and corruption from the environment was accompanied by a large increase in his ability to sense these two energies. This included three large masses of divine energy currently doing battle in the chamber. Melinoë had somehow broken free and was absorbing large amounts of corruption at a frightening pace. Judging by her rapidly spiking energy signature, she was using this corruption to break through to the Flesh-Sanctification Realm!

Flesh-sanctification cultivators dominate Bone-Forging cultivators because of their powerful bodies, thought Sorin. There's also a huge difference in the reach of their spirits and their ability to pillage energy from their surroundings. This external expression of mana and spirit is what Flesh-Sanctification cultivators refer to as aura.

This aura was currently being wielded by Melinoë to suppress Michael and Charles. The heroes in the room could barely defend themselves as a swarm of nightmares attacked them from all sides.

Fortunately, Sorin's breakthrough began to wind down once 10% of his muscles, tendons, and organs were transformed. His spiritual detection range grew from a few feet to a hundred feet. It was the same for his mana projection range, meaning that he could now poison people at a distance without the use of skills, spells, or divine abilities.

Three' gifts' accompanied Sorin's breakthrough. These were naturally the third stages of the Ten Thousand Poison Canon and the Divine Medical Codex, as well as the Flesh-Sanctification stage of the Kepler Clan's research notes.

This stage was unsurprisingly very long and spanned multiple generations. A terrifying number of Flesh-Sanctification cultivators had been subjected to inhumane experiments against their wills.

Sorin skimmed over these notes briefly but froze when he spotted the last entry.

Centuries have passed since the Kepler Clan started its Great Undertaking. Through the sacrifice of countless lives and seventeen generations of blood, sweat, and tears, we have managed to partially open the third gate and reveal the fourth.

Unfortunately, this fourth gate, the Gate of Death, has thwarted the past three clan leaders. This is unsurprising, as our clan has always had a tense relationship with the Underworld Clans originating from Mattapan.

I can't help but wonder if further research can even be justified. Alas, the Council of Elders is as cowardly as it is stubborn.

--Lorent Abberjay Kepler, Kepler Medical Institute, Year 427 of the New Era.

Sorin let out a sigh of disappointment as he rose from his seat beneath the Core of Civilization. He could feel its golden light protecting him, and it was clear that it had given up on protecting the others in favor of protecting him during his breakthrough.

It was his companions, therefore, who paid the price. Stephan was missing an arm, and Daphne was unconscious. Joseph and Onesca were dead, and Michael and Charles were on their last legs.

"This ends here," whispered Sorin. A wave of poison burst out to form five distinct runic patterns that erupted, filling the entire temple chamber with deadly poison.

Nightmares melted. Marble pillars disintegrated. A hole appeared in the ceiling, revealing a dim outline of Delphi overhead.

The city was burning. He could feel their suffering.

"So, the coward is finally done with his breakthrough," said Melinoë, grabbing Michael by the neck and tossing him downward. He hit the pitted stone floor like a limp rag doll.

"She did something to the core and seems to have gained full control of these ruins," warned Charles. His robes were slick with blood.

"I can see that," said Sorin, looking from Melinoë to the Core of Civilization. A steady stream of divinity was pouring out from the core to reinforce Delphi, but that stream was being diverted through the three layers of catacombs and funneled straight into Melinoë.

"Congratulations on escaping your curse and changing your fate," said Sorin.

"It's you I need to thank," said Melinoë. "By disrupting the Source of Corruption, you released the seal on my divine mission. Thanks to these cursed catacombs, I was easily able to complete it."

"I'll bite," said Sorin. "What's your new divine mission?"

Melinoë grinned. "Divine Mission of Melinoë: destroy eighty percent of the social order in a city containing at least one million people. Delphi's social order was already at fifty percent destroyed. With the Core of Civilization distracted and the Source of Corruption gone, I was easily able to forge a connection with the catacombs and claim credit for the first fifty percent. Achieving the last thirty percent was as easy as breathing."

Sorin sighed. "And here I was thinking of showing you mercy. You might be rotten to the core, but you were still a victim."

Melinoe's smile twisted into a snarl. "I don't need pity. Not yours. Not anyone else's. I will be the master of my own fate."

"Then prepare yourself," said Sorin, pointing a finger at Melinoë. Ten thousand golden needles appeared before him, pointing straight at her. "Since you've made your decision, I will now pass judgment.

"You, Melinoë, are a cancerous tumor. You are a threat to this city and all of humanity. And it is my duty as a hero, as an adventurer, and as a physician to eliminate you."