Return of the Fallen Volume 11 Chapter 50
Covered in a cloak of ki, the two moved with stealth. They managed to avoid pulling the attention of any sandworms but these were not the only obstacles that stood in their way. There were no hidden traps like they encountered in the ancient ruins above but instead, Arc had difficulty locating the correct path to the core. With Arc’s power waning, it had difficulty sensing the entirety of this world.
They had to backtrack a few times but eventually, Arc found a different method.
Instead of sending out a continuous flow of power to detect the Ancient one, Arc sent out a pulse of energy. Every time it did this, its power would run into many blocked passageways. At some point, however, this tiny bit of power would meet the ancient ones and it would be ripped apart and destroyed. Arc would use the last known location of its power before it was destroyed and it would act like a sort of radar.
With this new method, they moved along slowly but surely. Deeper and deeper they made their way down. Hundreds upon hundreds of miles spiraling in odd directions and twisting into many different passages. After hours upon hours, they easily arrived at their destination, shocking them to some degree.
Arc spoke directly in both of their heads.
(We’ve arrived.)
Kazuki and Marty both exchanged a look.
The two still could not communicate through the mind because of this world’s suppression but they both understood one another with a glance.
Things had gone smoothly, far too smoothly. They had passed thousand upon thousands of sandworms but nearly all of them had ignored the pair. It was almost as if there was something else they were concerned with. The two shared similar thoughts and they both felt something was wrong. As if to fulfill their worries, the pair turned a corner, and there it was.
A free-floating, shapeless shifting light. It was as large as a lake and as bright as a star. Inside a hollowed-out mountain, the soul of the ancient being hovered center stage up above. The two had been used to the everyday pitch black world that was the underground so coming face to face with this radiant bright light was almost blinding. If they were weaker, this light could have been enough to melt their eyes and turn their brain to ash.
This already was a stunning sight but something else stole their attention almost immediately. All over the ground, as far as the eye could see, hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of Giant sandworms littered the floor. Lying at the center, directly beneath the soul of the ancient, an even bigger sandworm lay upon them all. It was coiled up but even from where the pair stood, they could tell this sandworm was miles long.
The Gaint sandworm lifted its massive hill-sized head and opened its jaws and inhaled. A powerful force pulled and ripped away a small portion of the floating soul up above and the soul visibly shrank. As if to show its displeasure, the floating soul sent out a shockwave of power and the entire world trembled horrendously. This caused thousands of Giant sandworms to rush out in fear.
To their shock, this trembling of the world was followed up by a powerful booming voice.
“YOU FIENDISH MAGGOT! IF I HAD MY BODY, NO IF I HAD A FINGER I WOULD HAVE DESTROYED YOU LONG AGO! I SWEAR UPON MY BLOODLINE, YOU WILL DIE BY MY POWER IF ITS THE LAST THING I DO!”
The voice was so loud and contained such power that it rattled both Kazuki and Marty’s souls and caused both to cough up blood on the spot. Kazuki recovered almost instantly while Marty took a few seconds. Without hesitation, the two retreated into hiding just in case. If a mere shout could cause such inner damage, then the two couldn’t even imagine if Resadez actually injected some of its remaining power into an attack.
The three now understood what had caused the stampede from earlier. After retreating backward some, Marty and Kazuki jumped out of the way and climbed almost a hundred feet up along the wall, just so they wouldn’t get crushed beneath the wave of worms rushing forth.
A moment later, the King sand worm laid back down, curling up slightly as if it had gone to sleep. The floating soul up above was enraged but the king sandworm did not seem to care in the least. Suddenly things began to make sense. The reason this world was dying was not due to the eons upon eons of lying about. Instead, there was a monster eating and chipping away at the power of the ancient one. The ancient one could do nothing but shake the world while the king of them all simply ate and slept.
Since the other worms were in fear and the king was miles away, the pair felt safe talking in low whispers.
“Jentson, it’s that bastard’s fault. Because it keeps eating Resadez, the entire world is reaching its destruction.”
Kazuki thought about what Arc had said.
“So this is why you could only give a guesstimate at best when it came to a time frame. The time of destruction is dependent on both the king’s sandworm rate at eating as well as Resadez’s will to survive. After being eaten slowly but surely for countless years, it’s insane that this ancient being has yet to give in.”
(Is it really so hard to grasp? Have you already forgotten Zephris? He was turned into a part of that Miasma due to Sephra and Torzz’s meddling. Even as he was enduring the excruciating pain of being put together and ripped back apart, again and again, he carried on with one goal, revenge. Revenge, hatred, love, joy, obsession, these strong emotions can bind us and when one holds onto that, even through the pain, it can keep you going for eternity if one is strong enough. This is going to be both difficult and easy.)
(Arc, what do you mean? Don’t you just have to absorb some of Resadez’s power and then we can leave this place for good? What’s changed?)
(Resadez will is still this strong. I thought by now when it only had half a day before it met its end, its will and consciousness would be on the verge of collapse and easy to deal with but as you can see it still holds great rage which means both aspects that keep it going still remain. I was going to take what I wanted forcefully but in my own weakened state, this will truly be difficult. I have to try another method.)
(What other method is that? Do we even have enough time for something else?)
Arc ignored Kazuki and slipped off of his thumb and flew forward. Kazuki and Marty were both confused and didn’t know what Arc had planned. Kazuki wondered if he should follow just in case but Marty grabbed his shoulder.
“Jentson, wait and see what happens. If the great Arc went ahead without ya it must be for good reason, right?”
Kazuki wasn’t sure but at this point, there was little he could do. Even if he folded his aura into thousands of layers to protect himself, he knew it would just be torn apart like paper if Resadez wished. There was no way he could face such a powerful soul. Even without a real physical body, the power from the ancient one could and would absolutely obliviate Kazuki in a fraction of a second if things turned bad.
The two clung to the wall and quietly observed.
Arc flew up to Resadez’s soul and before it got within a thousand feet, Resadez called out in fury.
“Another greedy bastard dares come for me. TRY IT AND YOU WILL DIE BY MY HANDS!”
Arc was quiet for a moment before it spoke.
“Oh, and with what hands do you plan on killing me with exactly? Far as I can see, this eye is the last remaining part of your body and we all know it’s a decayed husk of what it used to be.”
Marty’s eyes went wide.
“Jentson maybe ya should have gone. I didn’t realize the great artifact would go out and insult the ancient one the moment they come face to face.”
Marty gently pushed Kazuki forward a tiny bit and Kazuki immediately resisted and clawed his fingers deeper into the wall.
“I ain’t going anywhere near that shit. Let’s watch as you said. That or you can go first.”
Marty shook her head.
“I ain’t moving nowhere.”
Arc could hear the two bickering back and forth and became annoyed but right now Arc had more important issues at hand and ignored the two.
The soul glowed even brighter in a threatening way.
“You little one, you speak to a true God of
“I’ll stop you right there. You are no longer a God. You are a mere fragment, a speck left to rot in a corner of a Realm that all have abandoned and most have already forgotten. You are no more of a God than I am the supreme ruler of all things. So stop with the empty threats and let’s have a discussion. I’m sure it will benefit both of us.”
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