Kal’s memory of that strange place quickly began to fade and soon the only thing that remained concrete in his mind was the haggard man. The emotions he felt during the vision felt so real like they were his own. He felt the man’s desire to end the suffering of his world but he knew nothing of what that suffering truly was. The man was in the middle of making a horrible decision and both paths led to oblivion. Kal wished the man had looked at the system’s notification in those final moments, maybe then he would have been able to better understand what was happening.
New Landera was the world's name but the name meant nothing to Kal, he didn’t even know the name of his own world just it definitely wasn’t New Landera or Kartha, the world he had seen Fyborh in the pillar's vision and the world this abyssal plane used to be. Maybe Mira would know more about the haggard man’s world and what ultimately became of it. But honestly, Kal wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear about another world's death and the extermination of apparently billions or trillions of people. What he did want to know was, who was the haggard man? He was obviously insanely powerful, he had to be a god with that amount of power. What he had done was not as flashy as what he had experienced before the abyssal tears opened at the camp or what Fyborh and the people of Kartha had done in that vision, but the scale of it was frankly insane. The haggard man’s skill had affected billions of people all at the same time, whereas Kal’s version of the skill only affected one from what he could tell from the description.
Using the skill on a scale as insane as that had to generate so much mana for the man that surely there was no way he could contain it. Or was he really that powerful that he could use all the mana he had stolen from those people? It all made Kal’s head hurt. Why was he even shown that vision? Seeing it used didn’t really help him understand its construction, but seeing the insanity that was the man’s ability to create such a skill had done something. It was like just looking at it happening in front of him had burned concepts that he was yet to understand directly onto his mind. It wasn’t pleasant at all but during the forging of his variant of the skill he had felt it guide him through the portions that he had witnessed happen thousands of times inside the haggard man’s core space.
If his mind was stronger, could he learn more from these experiences? Every ten levels until at least his next class evolution he would experience visions like this again. What if he could grasp the tiniest bit more of that infinite tapestry that now sat grayscale in his mind, devoid of the meaning it held in the moment of his observation?
These were all questions he couldn’t answer unless he continued to grow in power. Kal got to his feet and stretched, checking the wave timer again.
Wave: 2
Time: 26 days, 11 hours, 32 minutes, 12 seconds
He still had a long time before the trial ended and for now, he would take advantage of his relatively safe location to prepare for the hordes outside the seeker shadow’s domain. He wasn’t going to run and hide when he next stepped foot outside of the mists.
Kalum Lesta
Status
Class:
Slayer of Fate [Epic] [Anomalous]
Level:
30
Race:
Human?
Health:
1354/2000
Stamina:
3400/3400
Wrath:
1102
Attributes
Strength:
294
Agility:
137
Endurance:
340
Vitality:
200
Intellect:
142
Perception:
168
Will:
351
Wisdom:
153
Available:
0
Titles
Ascendant, Core Bane, Core Smith, Defier of Dhinir, Planeswalker, Planar Appetite, Slayer of the Strong, Endurance Elite, Strength Elite, Will Elite, Demon Slayer, Paragon of Man
Skills
Soul Forge [Rare], Wrathful Regeneration [Common], Wrath Incarnate [Uncommon], Abyssal Consumption [Rare], Flames of Wrath[Uncommon] [Soul Forged], Slayer’s Intent [Rare] [Soul Forged]
Race
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Birthright: Confined
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Archive Search Complete: [
Entry:000001 == Corrupted,
Entry:000002 == Corrupted,
Entry:000003 == Corrupted,
Entry:000004 == Corrupted,
Entry:000005 == Corrupted,
Entry:000006 == Corrupted,
Entry:000007 == Corrupted,
Entry:000008 == Corrupted,
Entry:000009 == Corrupted,
Entry:000010 == Corrupted,
Entry:000011 == Corrupted,
Entry:000012 == Corrupted,
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Entry:523214 => 523217 == Intact,
Entry:523218 == Corrupted,
Entry:523219 == Corrupted,
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]
Mira’s core would have sighed with relief if it had an audio glyph in working condition. The most recent scan had taken far longer than it usually did and she had been worried that she had lost that function as well, its length however was still a worrying sign. The bunker's glyph matrix would not last much longer. Forcing the glyphs throughout the bunker to speak with Kalum Lesta was incredibly taxing on the matrix, something that she would have been scolded for if her creator was still here. But now Mira was sure that they would have understood. She hadn’t spoken to anyone for far too long. Even though speech was so inefficient compared to her other forms of communication, Mira hadn’t realized how much she missed speaking to her creator, or anyone for that matter. The loss of data stores was likely to blame for that but soon it may not matter either way.
Mira ran her daily diagnostic function and grumbled at its similarly long runtime. Her display as always was covered in an assortment of error codes and corrupted text but she ignored most of it honing in on the last few still active modules.
[Memory Module: 3.5%] Warning: Please contact your nearest mana engineer for maintenance immediately.
[Personality Module: 98%] Warning: Module shielding has deteriorated beyond acceptable levels. Please contact your nearest mana engineer for maintenance immediately.
[Defense Systems: 53%] Warning: The conversion matrix is overdue for its monthly maintenance. Power limited until the conversion matrix has been properly maintained.
[Conversion Matrix: 0%] Warning: Excessive levels of variant abyssal mana have been detected. System offline until the module has been properly maintained.
She sighed looking over the modules. The memory module had dropped three percent overnight while Kalum Lesta was present. Speaking had put far too much strain on the remaining matrices and it cost her dearly. Her memory was one thing but she had accepted that she would lose the vast majority of her data stores eventually. What really worried her was the personality module. The module's shielding had been degrading for centuries now and once it was broken she would soon be just another ball of mana, slowly dissipating into the atmosphere like she hadn’t even existed. At least she had been able to speak to someone again, even if it was only for a short time.
Mira wondered about the strange man who had stumbled into her bunker. She hoped that he was still alive somewhere, but her doubts were high. He had been so weak. Barely ascended and stumbling around on a dead world taken by the abyss like so many others. His story of arriving here and crafting his own core was astounding and something even her creator would have loved to learn of if he were still here. Hopefully, Kalum’s tenacity would let him thrive where others could not. She had searched her data stores on core creation and variant resources but it appeared they were just more examples of what she had lost, if she had ever known such things in the first place. In case Kalum returned and had need of some more general information, Mira had put together a report on many useful things about leveling during the first few tiers of power. It was by no means a complete document of everything he would need but it would certainly be helpful to him. She would have given it to him earlier if she had finished the scan in time, but with her data stores in such a mess he had left well before she had completed it.
Mira just hoped she would see him again. Before she joined her creator.
As the thought passed. One of the defensive glyphs flared to life outside of the entrance to the bunkers. Mira’s awareness instantly focused on the entrance stairwell. Excited to see Kalum again, Mira began to make the alterations to the glyphs near the stairwell to greet him but froze as a large-scaled figure stepped into the radius of her sight.
Warning an unknown entity has entered the bunker.
Without any further delay, Mira activated all the bunker’s defenses she still had access to. The large reinforced doors slammed closed and a barrage of pure radiant mana flooded the landing where the scale figure had just entered.
[Defense Systems: 42%]
Suddenly Mira heard a deep chuckle from the landing and her vision of the room vanished as all the glyphs there were shattered. Her awareness of her surroundings suddenly in shambles Mira refocused her attention on the long hallway, activating all the defensive arrays, targeting them all at the still-closed door.
Crash!
The reinforced door exploded inwards, sending chunks of dull stone throughout the entire hallway as the defensive arrays fired intense beams of potent offense attacks. The figure simply raised their hand as the beams collided with him, exploding and forming a large crack through the foundation of the bunker and turning the area surrounding the demon into molten slag.
[Defense Systems: 20%]
The deep chuckle echoed through the hall as the smoke and fire cleared away, “Veeery, interesting. I had heard few places like this still existed on this plane, but who would have suspected one could be found so close to that place.” The demon stepped out of the cooling obsidian and continued down the hall, “Tell me, caretaker-”
Mira unleashed another barrage of destructive power from the defensive array and began to seal all the doors to her core room. The figure spat with disgust simply taking the attack to his chest and letting the hall around him explode and melt away. Before she could fire again the figure had moved and slammed his fist into the wall where that housed Mira’s visual array for the room, once again blinding her to his actions. She began trying to activate the next room's defensive arrays but found them completely unresponsive and a notification flashed into her awareness.
[Defense Systems: 0%]
There was nothing else she could do but hope the demon didn’t find her core room. The hope of that happening vanished almost instantly as the next door exploded from a casual strike from the monster coming for her.
Crash!
Crash! Crash!
It appeared she wouldn’t be getting that chance to speak to Kalum before her end, but at least he wasn’t here to be killed by this monster.
Crash!
Crash!
With each explosion more of Mira’s visual radius vanished as the demon cut a path straight towards her core room, somehow knowing exactly where it was. Finally, she could hear the sound of the demon closing in on the door right outside her core room. The doors here were far stronger than the others in the bunker since her well-being was tantamount to the success of the bunker.
Crack!
A huge crack suddenly formed at the center of the door immediately followed by a second as the demon slammed its powerful fists into the magical stone. She didn’t know what was going to happen but she doubted she would survive the demon’s entrance with her core and modules in their current state. In case Kalum returned she wanted him to know what happened and leave him the report she had made, so she used the little power she had remaining to alter the glyphs in the dining hall to play a message upon his return.
The door blew apart and several chunks of stone collided with any number of active and deactivated modules alike shattering the delicate conduits of mana, sending Mira’s awareness into chaos but to her surprise she remained intact for now. She shifted her awareness onto her attacker and ran the demon identification subroutine of her search function.
[Lumixet | Tier 2 Abyssal Spawn] Warning !!! Extreme threat detected!
She scoffed internally at the function’s response, obviously.
The dust cleared around the intimidating form of a mostly humanoid-looking demon, its form covered in charcoal gray scales over a heavily muscled frame. The Lumixet wore no clothing besides a black loin cloth held in place by an exquisite abyssal steel belt. Its head sported several short sharp horns almost appearing like a crown, and its eyes burned with the black and purple fury of abyssal mana. Its mouth twisted into a ghastly sneer, showing a mouth full of vicious fangs, “You will pay for interrupting me caretaker, but first you will tell me what you know of the… anomaly.”