Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

Sorin knew they had arrived the moment he crossed the temple's threshold. How did he know it was a temple? Sorin had no idea. It was instinctual, something imprinted onto his flesh and his bones.

"It feels like home," muttered Sorin as they left a dark tunnel and arrived in an open courtyard eliminated by soft, golden light. "Not the Ancestral Manor, but the home my mother and father raised me in on the upper levels of Olympia.

"Ree ree ree?" said Lorimer in a confused tone.

"I have no idea what he's talking about either," said Lawrence. "It's just a temple. An old temple with remnant powers, but still just a temple."

Sorin shook his head. "It's not just a temple, Lawrence. I've been to many temples of Hope, but none of them have ever given me this feeling."

"Sorin!" Stephan burst through a small archway and pulled Sorin into a tight hug. "We were worried when only Lawrence showed up. I nearly slapped him dead when he explained the situation."

"It's not my fault I didn't have enough juice," muttered Lawrence.

"You could have at least stayed to provide support from a distance," said Gareth, walking out from the same archway. "I already had your location mapped out would have made it to support you just fine."

"Gareth, I asked him to go find you all," said Sorin in Lawrence's defense. "He didn't have the mana to take Lorimer and me along, and it was clear that I was Python's main target. Besides, everything worked out in the end. By the way, where are Daphne and Astley?"

Gareth pointed up the temple stairs. "Past those fancy pillars and the snake staff statues. There's an altar there that both of them are trying to figure out."

"Any luck so far?" asked Sorin.

"No," said Gareth, shaking his head. "Though I think I saw a flash of light around the time you arrived. That's why they're not out here to welcome you."

Sorin nodded. "How's everyone's health? Python can hit pretty hard."

"Compared to you and Lorimer, everyone's in great shape," said Gareth. "They're just low on mana, that's all."

"I also injured my pride," said Stephan. "I couldn't run properly. I couldn't distract or hurt that snake. Its scales were just too thick."

"They're tough scales," agreed Sorin. "I had a lot of trouble piercing them as well. Do you think you could have dealt damage to it using your Aspect Transformation?"

"Maybe," said Stephan. "I asked Gareth about it, but he suggested I hold back."

Gareth led Sorin and company through the archway that led into a mostly intact hall filled with artistic depictions of serpents. The Temple, Sorin noted, was in much better shape than the rest of the ruins beneath the third catacomb. It was much larger than the remnant Temple of Apollo that served as Administrator Pollen's residence. Judging by the number of rooms and sub-altars present, the place could accommodate ten thousand mortals with room to spare.

It didn't take long for Sorin to confirm his initial guess—this temple was dedicated to his clan's patron, Asclepius. The most obvious sign was the snake-staff pillars Gareth had mentioned. They mirrored the clan's most powerful artifact, the Rod of Asclepius., which also served as their family insignia and doubled up as the symbol of the Medical Association.

The familiar sensation Sorin felt deepened the further in they went. Images flashed in Sorin's mind as they passed effaced statues like long-forgotten memories from his childhood. Except they weren't his memories, but someone else's.

At first, the images were hazy and difficult to make out. They mostly depicted a handsome bow-wielding man with a lyre and a beautiful woman. Though the woman was mortal, the man had clearly transcended the mundane, as evidenced by the golden glow that accompanied him wherever he walked.

The man eventually left, but not before leaving her with child. Heartbroken and lonely, the mortal woman fell in love with another man. Little did she know that her actions would invoke the absent god's wrath and result in her death. Her child, who had clearly inherited his father's divinity, was ripped out of her still-burning body, tainting the newborn with fire and death.

The child was found to have an astounding talent for medicine. His father, always keeping watch from a distance, secretly sent divine tutors to nourish the prodigy.

Eventually, the child discovered his divine heritage and embarked on a series of divine trials. After proving himself worthy of ascension, he changed his name to Asclepius. He inherited a portion of his father's domain of healing and gained dominion over Medicine.

What followed was a bizarre and twisted story where Asclepius saved too many people from death, gravely upsetting Hades. He died and became the constellation Ophiuchus but somehow remained alive enough to answer people's prayers.

All Sorin knew was that Asclepius was now well and truly dead. All that remained of him was the spiritual image that accompanied the inheritance of Asclepius.

Sorin regained lucidity as he stepped into the temple proper and beheld the statue of the dead god. It was faceless, just like the other statues in the temple, but it radiated a familiar warmth. It was the same warmth he'd felt when he'd met Asclepius's spiritual projection and accepted the Trial of Divine Bone Rot.

"Sorin!" said Daphne, rushing over and hugging him tightly. "You're alive!"

"I won't be if you keep hugging me so hard," said Sorin. "I see you're both quite busy trying to crack this puzzle?"

"It's mostly Astley who's trying to crack it," said Daphne. "I'm just helping where I can. Speaking of which, I'm supposed to draw a few more spell formations. I'll be back shortly."

Sorin watched on with interest as both Astley and Daphne formed a pyre and attempted to make a burnt offering to the statue in the temple. The result was a lot of acrid smoke and degraded corruption. Sorin whisked it away before anyone was impacted.

"Allow me," said Sorin, walking up to the altar.

"There you are," said Astley, looking up from their failed offering. "I was worried you wouldn't make it, so I tried to open this thing on my own."

"You want me to open something?" asked Sorin, looking around.

"This altar seems to be linked to some sort of door," said Astley. "I tried everything I could, but in the end, I think there's only one thing that will work: your blood."

Sorin raised an eyebrow. "What makes you so confident my blood will work?"

Astley smiled. "I think we'll find that out shortly, won't we?" She gestured toward the altar. "Just dribble some blood in that bowl over there. I imagine no other offerings will be required."

Curious about where this was leading, Sorin walked up to the temple and used Nemesis to cut his palm open. Blood dribbled into the bowl on the altar. Sorin was surprised to see that both the altar and the bowl were unaffected by his blood's corrosive nature.

Tarnished gold patterns appeared on the bowl as soon as it was half full. The same tarnished gold pattern spread out onto the altar and made its way to a circular area in front of the statue of Asclepius.

The ground trembled as a stone slab opened. A familiar object rose from the ground: a stele.

Before Sorin could react, his spirit was whisked out of his body and pulled into the stele. A family tree not unlike the one in the Temple of Apollo unfolded before his eyes.

The difference was that this time, he could read it. This wasn't new knowledge, but something he already knew. It was written in his blood and his bones.

Asclepius, Son of Apollo and Coronis.

Wife: Epione

Legitimate Children: Hygieia, Panacea, Aceso, Iaso, and Aegle, Machaon, Podaleirios, and Telesphoros. Illegitimate Children: Aratus.

The family tree proceeded to track the descendants of these many deities. A few of them had children with other deities, but most chose to have offspring with mortals.

What followed was a series of alternating black and gold names. All those with black names were mortals, while those with gold names were those who had awakened as demigods. Some were even lucky enough to become legitimate gods.

Like Apollo's family tree, Asclepius's family numbered in the tens of thousands. Most of them were mortals with a diminishing number of demigods in each generation. And just like Apollo's family tree, that number sharply declined with Asclepius perished alongside his divine progeny, demigods included.

The sparse remnants continued to multiply and occasionally produced golden names. Typically, one was born in each generation, though these individuals rarely left any descendants.

Sorin braced himself as he inspected the bottom of the family tree, where a single golden name could be seen.

Silenos Avjerinos Asclepius

Sorin's mind instantly translated the name into its more familiar form: Sorin Abberjay Kepler.

His mind reeled as Historical Amnesia attempted to erase his findings. The strength of the amnesia greatly exceeded what Sorin had encountered to date. It threatened to destroy his already-wounded soul, but before this could happen, a fierce light shot out from the statue of Asclepius and smashed into the mind-altering spell, allowing the truth to take root so that Sorin would never forget it again.

Sorin opened his eyes and found he'd been unconscious. Blood trickled from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Despite having suffered grievous injuries, he discovered, to his surprise, that his body was rapidly healing. For that matter, so was everyone else's, including Lorimer's.

"God of Medicine indeed," whispered Astley. "Under His influence, even demons are easily healed." She shot Sorin a sidelong glance. "What did you discover?"

Sorin slowly picked himself off the ground. "The knowledge nearly killed me, Astley. Are you sure you want to know?"

Astley frowned. "That potent? Unfortunate."

Sorin considered sharing what he'd learned but decided that it wasn't worth the risk. "I can tell you, but no one else. You're the only one who might be able to handle it, given your resistance to historical amnesia.

Astley smiled. " Let's do it, then. Even if it kills me, I'll die satisfied at having learned another important mystery."

Sorin stepped up beside Astley and leaned close to her ear. He reduced his voice to the barest whisper in case the others, who'd intentionally distanced themselves, accidentally overheard him.

"The names of the major clans have indeed been tampered with just like you guessed," said Sorin. "Including my own name, which I will not tell you quite yet.

"But I can confirm that it's just as you surmised. The Kepler Clan's original name is Asclepius. The Pollen Clan's original name was Appollo."

"I knew it," whispered Astley. "But that's far from earthshattering, as this hypothesis has been proposed time and time again."

"That's because the greater truth is far more shocking," said Sorin. "Because it involves the reason that God Seeds exist. The reason why every clan's divine inheritance is so difficult to steal."

Astley gulped. "Tell me. Whether it's specific bloodlines being chosen or special bloodlines that resonate well with their patron deities, I can accept anything."

"It would be far more accurate to say that the divine inheritances don't matter," said Sorin. "They're simply tools to bring out a bloodline's potential. That's because these bloodlines aren't just compatible with the divine inheritance—they are divine. My Clan, the Asclepius Clan, is directly descended from our Patron God, Asclepius."

The Truth struck Astley with such great force that every bone in her body shattered. Sorin cursed as he caught her and took out a healing potion, only to discover that her body was already healing.

Her bones, which were a far cry from reaching silver grade moments prior, rebuilt themselves form the ground up using silver runes instead of bronze ones.

Astley shivered as the last of her bones snapped into place. The glazed look in her eyes faded, revealing a gaze filled with unprecedented clarity. "If not for Asclepius's healing light, the truth would have killed me," she said, looking up at Sorin. "I don't recommend allowing anyone else to know this secret. Not until they have sufficient power to absorb the backlash."

"Well?" asked Sorin. "Are you pleased at your discovery?"

"It explains so much," muttered Astley. "Including why Delphi's catastrophes have targeted major clans and why the Kepler Clan is always a priority."

"Maybe," said Sorin. "Though, in my opinion, the Kepler Clan's situation is a little more complicated." He looked back at Stephan and company, who jogging towards them.

"How are you, Astley," huffed Stephan. "And this truth you mentioned—do we want to know?"

"Only if you want to die a horrible and painful death," Sorin answered.

Stephan nodded. "By the looks of it, Astley benefited greatly from whatever you said. What empowerment did you receive? What heroic ability?"

"My empowerment is a little strange in that it's combined with my ability," said Astley. "The ability's name is Doppelgänger. It grants me the ability to mimic a willing team member's attributes, abilities, and equipment with sixty percent accuracy. I can also mimic an enemy in the same realm with forty percent accuracy."

Lawrence groaned. "Seriously? Why does everyone else get cool abilities while I'm stuck with stuff like seeing things better and running away?"

"I believe that's consistent with your general behavior," said Gareth.

"Agreed," said Daphne. "Everyone seems to be getting something in line with how they usually operate."

"Reee!" agreed Lorimer.

"Well, that's just cruel," scolded Astley. "Wait, I can understand rat now? It seems there's a language portion to this ability. A wonderful development."

"Congratulations," said Sorin. "I, for one, look forward to seeing how well you can mimic my poisons."

"Unfortunately, God Seeds are not considered to be in the same cultivation realm," said Astley with a sigh.

"I think you'll get to try out your new ability soon enough," said Gareth. An image flashed before their eyes, showing a battlefield littered with corpses. A group of powerful cultivators was currently clashing with a blind serpent. "Apparently, Python intercepted them just as they were trying to enter the temple at the center of the city."

"Those are life bond spell elements," said Daphne. "That golden shield around the Administrator's Manor is drawing on Python's life force to support itself."

"Then isn't this a lost cause?" asked Stephan. "Most of us can barely even hurt that thing, even with our heroic empowerment helping us get past realm suppression."

"It might be possible," said Sorin, eyeing Charles and Michael, who were fighting alongside other silver-tier heroes. "With two God Seeds and some powerful heroes as backup, we might be able to do it. Besides, do we have a choice? Melinoë is in the Administrator's Manor, and whatever it is she's cooking up won't bode well for us."

"Agreed," said Gareth. "Stephan, our attacks might not mean much, but if they increase our odds of defeating that creature by even one or two percentage points, it'll be worth it."

"I get it," said Stephan. "I'm just grumpy because this thing counters me pretty hard. At best, all I'll be able to do is take hits from it."

"Fortunately, that's exactly what we need you to do," said Sorin.

"Bite me," said Stephan.

Daphne cleared her throat. "I believe we'll be needing some sort of transportation."

"I hate you all," said Stephan, shifting into Arctic Rune Bear form.

"That, and provide transportation," said Daphne.

"I think I'll give transformation a shot," said Astley. Her body blurred as it transformed to mimic Lawrence. It was extremely accurate and included everything but gender. "How disappointing. I was hoping the imitation would be more than skin deep."

"You should be grateful," said Lawrence, giving her a thumbs up. "Going full, Lawrence isn't something just anyone can do."

"It's one of the key rules of acting," agreed Sorin. "If you go full Lawrence, you'll never recover."

"Hey!" said Lawrence. "It's not my fault I'm too much man for most people to handle."

"I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about your physical endowments, Lawrence," said Gareth. "Now, let's get going. Those guys aren't going to last very long without our help."