Laura stared at the floating hologram in front of her with a smile, her eyes twinkling dimly with dark light. Even though she was long prepared for this, to be actually here just two weeks after joining Aegis made her a little bit terrified.
Just how strong has the original gotten already? What kind of monstrous brain capacity does he have to have ordained all this? She quietly asked herself and mumbled, “I… Are you guys really sure about this?”
“We’re pressed for time, Laura.” A woman sighed as she flipped her short blond hair. Her light blue eyes gazed silently at the black and white picture of Ulva to the side as she said, “You still can’t know it yet until later, but this matter is of great importance—“
“—It even pertains to the reason why we allow those gangs to exist in the Right Isle,” she continued.
“Ulva’s death is tragic, but she died an honorable death,” a man with dirty blond hair and amber-colored eyes softly muttered.
“Wait, wait. I still don’t get why we’re pressed for time. I thought Aegis had plenty of spare Level 3s lying around. I don’t think I’m qualified enough to be a bonafide team captain,” Laura hurriedly said. Ugh, I still have to keep up the act of a reluctant bitch that doesn’t want to be team captain. Ulva, you bastard. Poppy should have made your death more painful and torturous.
“This…” the blond-haired woman, who was the same super capable of controlling glass, paused as she tried to think of a way to explain the situation without leaking too much information. “We already requested for a temporary Level 3 to the higher-ups, but it seems like something’s going on in Dela right now and there’s no spare personnel left to be assigned.”
“They even gave you the green light to be a team captain since all you really need is experience and finishing the training program,” she added.
How convenient. I suppose the no spare personnel part is true since Dela is on full-blown lockdown, but the higher-ups being so careless and giving a newbie like me the green light? The original’s illusion is cooking right now!
Fuck, it’s even hilarious how Ulva back then didn’t bother to try and call for backup and died in an honorable one-versus-one fight against Poppy. That’s literally the opposite of what every trainee would learn in the training program.
And then they don’t even notice that issue. Goddamn, that motherfucker is already showing the profoundness of controlling destiny at this point.
Laura flexed her acting skills a bit more before finally accepting the promotion.
“Where are we going?” she asked with a wary tone as she was led into a dark hallway with an elevator at the very end.
“You’ll understand later,” the dirty blond-haired guy answered her cryptically.
“Just… don’t be shocked too much when you finally realize what it is,” the glass-controlling woman advised.
“If you guys say so,” Laura mumbled with an amused tone.
…
Poppy swept his black hair away from his face and quietly stared at the tall building in the distance. It was a stark contrast to all of the dilapidated and grimy buildings of the Right Isle, with its clean, shiny glass panes and freshly painted walls.
His vision zoomed in on the highest floor and he saw a woman sitting silently in a quiet room. She had flowing, dark blue hair and wore a casual suit that accentuated her curvy frame. He could see parts of the tattoo on her neck and her arms, which when fully revealed, would appear as a coiling azure dragon surrounded by wind and rain.
She was the Azure Dragon gang’s leader, Azure Dragon—a fearsome Level 3 super capable of transforming into the mythical Azure Dragon, a divine beast capable of controlling wind.
Four divine beasts capable of controlling four different elements… I think I’m right on the money regarding the original’s riddle back then.
“A body molded from divinity, one blessed by the four elements of heaven.”
“I suppose this is the reward the original is giving me, a completely broken level 4 ability,” Poppy mumbled with a malevolent grin. “If I were to survive the fated day, then it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say that I would be one of the strongest avatars in the world…”
“No, I wouldn’t even be an avatar anymore. I would be an independent entity, perhaps still under the original’s control through his web of lies, but that’s what makes life exciting.”
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He took a deep breath, bent his legs, and leaned his body forward. His eyes locked in on his target and he flew at breakneck speeds. His figure turned illusory as if space around him warped, and he phased through the glass window like it was liquid.
Before Azure Dragon could even react, Poppy pressed his hand against her face and muttered, “Sayonara.”
Blood led right flooded out of his eyes as he activated all three of his main abilities—Blood, Flesh, and Bone Manipulation to gain full control over her body, rendering her immobile except for her soul. Then, as he exerted the power of his Personal Soul Mastery, a tendril of his cloned soul attached to his current body’s original soul extended out and touched her fragile, untrained soul.
With the great disparity in strength and skill when it came to the domain of spirits, Azure Dragon faced an anticlimactic defeat and fell, unable to put up a decent fight.
…
Laura silently waited in the elevator as it continued to descend deeper into the ground. By her approximation, they were over fifty floors deep underground and it looked like it wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon.
Back when the original was still part of Nuwesca City’s southwestern Aegis branch, the branch only had fifty floors at maximum and the lower sections of the base was were the artifacts and monsters were stored. So, with a little bit of educated guessing, Laura could tell that they were heading for the storage site of an artifact or a monster, and a powerful one at that.
She didn’t bother to speak nor initiate conversation and instead started to plan in her mind what she would do in case things went south.
“We’re here…” the dirty blond-haired guy spoke softly as the elevator came to a stop. The elevator slowly slid open, revealing a long hallway brightly lit by white light.
In the far distance, Laura could vaguely make out the presence of a large, metallic sphere riddled with innumerable ancient, dharmic runes. There was a strange brevity in the air as if she had entered a different place altogether.
The metallic sphere dilated between different shades of black and white, with wisps of those lights dissipating into the air.
“What is that?” Laura subconsciously asked as if prompted by a higher being.
The blond-haired woman took a deep breath as they approached the giant metallic sphere with slow, steady steps.
“That is a seal… A seal for an artifact,” she said cryptically.
“For an artifact?” Laura raised her eyebrow. “And that artifact, I suppose, is the reason why the Right Isle has those gangs? What’s the connection between that?”
“Yeah, I wonder why…” Braun’s eyes squinted as he stared intently at the web floating in the air in front of him.
This was it. He was in.
Finally, one month and three weeks after tucking his tail and running away from Aegis, locking himself inside his pocket dimension, the key to his ascension was finally unraveling itself to him.
The whole world around him turned dull and blurred, with his entire focus being placed on the unstable connection he had with Laura in the hallway.
They’ve set up many layers of defense for this one thing, huh? Even my artifact with Level 4 raw power is having a bit of a rough time maintaining this view. Braun rubbed his chin and patiently waited for the answers he had been longing for.
“It’s because it’s not just an ordinary artifact,” she mumbled as the three arrived in front of the giant metallic sphere surrounded by dharmic runes.
Wisps of black and white light continued to float atop the metallic sphere and dissipate in the air, forming strange, beautiful imageries.
Reaching out her hand to touch one of those wisps of light, she tapped the tip of her finger at a mote of white light and felt a strange stream of ‘good’ spiritual energy wash over him.
It’s like my luck increased… Laura narrowed her eyes.
The blond woman smiled at her reaction and continued, “It’s because the thing sealed here is a pseudo-Level 5 artifact… It’s an artifact formed after the death of an Aegis demigod who failed in their ascension to Level 5.”
“Its special ability is to allow the wielder to perceive and control karma in a distance as far as an entire city. If left alone, the karma of Insea City would turn chaotic and uncontrolled, with good and bad karma mixing and exchanging due to the remnant consciousness of the fallen Demigod residing in the artifact.”
“Only by allowing the karma of Insea City to be in a strange balance, with good karma dominant on one side and bad karma dominant on the other side, could the artifact be appeased and successfully sealed.”
“Good karma is easy to handle, but bad karma is harder. The Right Isle was designed and managed in such a way to accommodate powerful supers, beings with higher karmic amounts compared to normal people, to spread chaos and madness and allow the bad karma to grow.”
“As such, that is how Insea City as we know it came to be,” she said with a cold tone. “However, maintenance is required to keep the artifact sealed.”
“The maintenance of this artifact wouldn’t normally be an issue, but due to sudden changes in the city’s karma brought about by external factors like the increase of monster attacks and supers, the seal is beginning to weaken and the artifact is growing more rampant.”
“We need at least two different supers to maintain the power of the seal here until the Demigod assigned to maintaining this seal arrives next week, leaving one of us to handle affairs in the city.”
“We’ll take shifts maintaining the seal and make sure that nothing goes wrong, understand?”
“I get the whole gist of it… But I have one last question if you don’t mind,” Laura asked with an amicable grin.
The blond-haired woman nodded her head and said, “What is it?”
“I was just wondering what the name of the artifact is?” Laura beamed a smile.
“Oh yes, I forgot to reveal the name of the artifact itself.” She chuckled and gazed at the giant metallic sphere to her side.
“Its name is Artifact 4-214—Eyes of Karmic Perception.”
“BINGO!” Braun’s eyes glowed with an intense green light.
He stood on his two feet, with the spider legs behind his back wriggling with excitement.
“This is it…” He stretched out his hand, grasping at the void to pull out an illusory microphone.
Connecting his consciousness to the 900+ avatars running around Dela, he opened his mouth and said with a crazed tone.
“The prophesized day has been set. On the end of this month, next week from now, the ascension of Freidrich Braun shall commence!”