Ryuha gaped as he stared at the once-flaming ball of rock, which evidently wasn’t a meteor at all. What stood in front of him—well, floated is a better term, really—was a bone-white seven-pointed obelisk with silvery runic markings all over its length and breadth. The size of the meteor was an illusion, it seems, as the flaming rock was the size of a small carriage before disintegrating. But the item in front of him is much smaller; it looked to be as long as a young tree and just as thick. He heard Shin Lee mutter, “Beautiful.” He glanced at her sidelong, cocking his eyebrow.
“This is what you call beautiful? It’s a long piece of rock!” He pushed his hand out lazily to point at the rock. Although very interesting and the theatrics it displayed were impressive, it was still just a carved rock. Ryuha had a slight suspicion that this, all this, was probably one of his colleagues doing, most likely the Blade Whisperer trying to find his eternal disciple.
The crazy codger killed the very first of his disciple hopefuls, and when Ryuha asked him why he did so, he said his sword told him they weren’t worthy. That would have been understandable if the sword had some intelligence, as some mythic beasts tended to be able to develop. But it was just a piece of qi steel. It was an exquisite piece of qi steel, but it didn’t change the fact that it was just that, a sword. Once word spread that he killed his beloved disciples because his sword told him to, well, let's just say the old man won't be getting his wish anytime soon. And for him to create all this just to swindle some poor sect member or even mortal into following the old man was well within his capabilities. After all, he was the first of the big four.
Glancing back to the obelisk, not realizing that it had moved closer and was but a hair's breadth away, he touched it so subtly he might as well not have touched it at all. The consequences were immediate, as a blue-green box appeared in front of his face. Shocked, he stepped back, swatting at the box in front of his face to get rid of its proximity. With it not disappearing, he started to circle his qi, preparing for the inevitable attack. This action made all of them around him flinch as well, stepping a few steps back and also preparing their own qi techniques. An inhuman voice spoke as text began to spiral down the length of the blue box,
Touch activation sequence confirmed….
Success
Gene helix scan initiated….
No Gene modification found recalibrating to Argonautica Protocol
Processing….
Success
Scanning initiated….
Blue-green beam, the same colour as the box, shot out and moved through all that were gathered, continuing into the horizon. His qi still circling, Ryuha flexed his qi and coated all that were present in the same qi barrier he made to cover the entire sect. A voice from his right asked, 'Is everything alright, young master?' For once, it wasn’t Shin Lee; as expected, she was still studying the obelisk intently. The one to ask was the master of scrolls, Elder Tomo. Ryuha whirled on the man, frowning, threatening to form a scowl. 'You didn’t see that or this.' He motioned, and the man bowed and shook his head.
"No, young master. Is there something the matter? I can sense your qi barrier on..." Ryuha sensed Master Tomo flexing his own qi as he stood for a few seconds before his eyes shot open so wide Ryuha thought that if he opened them any wider, his eyes would threaten to fall out of his skull and roll on the floor. "On, on everyone," he said, eyes still wide. He continued, "even the elders." In a more muted tone, he asked, "Are we under attack, young master? Where is it? What is it?" Ryuha wanted to answer but was cut off as the beam of light returned. He focused on the box, still obscuring his vision, completely ignoring the question, leaving the man to go stark white. He read the text appearing in the box again, not once thinking about how he could understand the alien language
Rift Scan Complete
No Rift detected initiating Argonautica Protocol
Processing….
Initiated.
Ryuha heard a collective gasp come from everyone around him as he turned to Master Tomo. “What is it? What do you see?” The elder man took a second to answer, stunned at what he saw in front of him. “It’s, ah, it’s a blue-green box with text running across it,” he answered, turning his face this way and that, also throwing out a swipe in the air, evidently trying to see if he can get it off or away. “It doesn’t seem to be an illusion of some sort, and it obscures my vision even now, no matter whether I am looking to you or to open space.” Ryuha nodded at the man's statement.
So, it is the same for them as it is for me, even though I am the first to receive it. He was pulled out of his musings when a chorus of shouts of panic mixed with a little bit of awe came from the many disciples below. Evidently, the disciples were taking it a lot worse than he or the elders did. A quick and stern command from the nearest elders quieted them down near instantly as more text ran across his screen.
Before reading it, he asked Shin Lee, who was still locked in place behind him off to the left, quickly, “Do you also see text appearing on your blue box?” Shin Lee, for once, didn’t answer immediately. Ryuha raised an eyebrow but pressed on, “Shin Lee, do you see the text?” Only after three more times of asking did he get a response. The woman seemed annoyed, but not thinking too much about it, he got what he wanted when she answered curtly, “Yes, young master, there is text appearing on mine as well.” Thanking her, he went back to solely focusing back onto the blue box in front of him...
Argonautica protocol initiation…
Success
Retrieving necessary data….
Complete
Activating
The words ran across Ryuha’s vision as the blue box, the size or rather slightly larger than one of those abacuses used by tax men in mortal cities, stretched and grew in size until it was the same height as him. He heard Shin Lee take in a sharp breath, but before he could turn to her, the slight blue-green color changed to a pristine hall with intricate pearlescent carvings of mountains and warriors fighting vicious beasts. Beasts that he had never seen before.
Ryuha noticed something as he was trying to study the closest mural, or what he thought they must be, is that the warriors depicted seemed off somehow. They were obviously human, but there were slight discrepancies between each warrior that he could make out, such as some having scales on their bodies. He thought that he saw a tail carved onto what looked like a vanguard spearman fighting a terror-inducing beast, but Ryuha rationalized it as a trick of the already impossible situation. He found himself peering into someone’s, most likely a grandmaster-level cultivator's, cultivation hall experiencing it from a blue-green box that just suddenly appeared.
He wanted to ask one of the many people standing with him on his balcony if they also saw what he saw. As peered around to ask he noticed how many elders joined him on his balcony a bit of heat krept up his neck but he pushed it down now was not the time to make a scene, but that didn’t change the fact that they were treading in his domain quite intrusively. Ryuha might be impulsive, but he was no fool, so he did not make a fuss now. But he would be sure to seek his due later. Before he could so much as open his mouth and let words form a being no a person stepped into view inside the blue box. Ryuha snapped his full attention back, and what he saw utterly stole his breath away.
Ryuha, in his travels across this world, has seen many exquisite examples of beauty that many would say he was a liar, if not for his station and cultivation level. Some of the places were so dangerous that few tread there or tread there lightly. But what stood before him was as if it came out of a housewife’s fever dreams. A quick glance around at the few ladies present revealed slight pink hues flecking their cheeks.
Even the ever-stoic Shin Lee had some pink creeping up her neck, and he could not fault their reaction. The man was beautiful, obviously not as beautiful as Ryuha himself, of course, but with the striking yellow-gold hair that slightly curled around his ears and on the fringes of his perfect and thick eyebrows. His eyes were the colour of deep amber gold, a hue he had only seen on the mundane coins of wealthier mortal families. What was most shocking, however, was that his eyes were slitted like that of a snake. On his neck, visible under his robe, or rather tunic with too many filigrees and strange golden orbs running down the middle of his chest down to the crook of his hip, what a strange look.
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It did complement the black tunic over the white underneath. It was, what’s the word? Expensive, yes, expensive seemed the right word in the moment for it to be mundane tunics. Refocusing, he noticed the slight cross sections right into his skin, burning the same amber gold as his eyes, making it look like scales. However, that could not be. If it were not for his strange eyes and the colour of his hair, he would be considered just as human as anyone standing on the balcony with Ryuha—foreigner for sure, but still human.
"Hello," the man in the blue box started to speak, and Ryuha pushed his questions about the man to the back of his mind. The best way to get information was from the source itself. The man in the blue box continued.
"My name is..." The man paused; a complicated expression plastered on his face. Seeming to come to a decision, the man sighed and continued, "Who I am is of no import. What I have to say, on the other hand, is probably the most important thing you and your people will likely ever hear. But before I tell you what is to come, let me first tell you who we are and why we have sent you this message."
I come from a world that was at the apex of all things. We advanced ourselves through tempering our bodies in mana. Ah, apologies, on your world it might mean something different. We have heard many different iterations: qi, qithera, madra, chakra, zeta particles. It all is the same; it relates to what makes up all life. We mastered it, or some of us thought we did, thinking that there was nothing that could challenge us, nothing that could push us anymore.
Ryuha frowned at the man's words; it felt oddly similar to his very own thoughts just some hours ago. Squinting at the figure in the box that was oddly suspicious, one of the most powerful men starting to have these types of thoughts, and then this. Was it heavenly intervention? He thought on it for but a few moments before inwardly scoffing at himself. He must be more off balance than he thought about today's events if he believed the heavens themselves would intervene on his behalf. He breathed deep, stilling his turbulent qi, which he now noticed was still circling since the start of the blue box problem. He probably wasn't the only one still circling it unknowingly. He turned his attention back to the box in front of him and the man still explaining.
"We, of course, were wrong, so very wrong. IT arrived after we too got a message from another world explaining what I am currently explaining to you. I hope for your continued survival; you heed my words, unlike us who thought that we were better, stronger, that the mightiest amongst us could slay anything and grasp at the fruits of further progression."
Ryuha's ears perked up at this; he was sure he heard the man say they were at the pinnacle and that they too had hit the eternal wall. He continued, "What I am referring you to is the Helix system, a multiversal entity hell-bent on consuming new and uninitiated universes to test the new universes' inhabitants and to grow its horde in strength. Believe me, it has a horde like none other, and when they come, there is nothing you can do to stop it. Your techniques might work at first, but as ever the helix system observes, recalibrates, and evolves its horde to better withstand your attacks. When the second wave comes, the techniques you used in the first to slay the beasts will not work on its newly evolved brethren. We have built in a scanner to scan and estimate when the rifts will appear, and according to the scan, it will."
The man's voice cut out, and that non-human voice took over. "Rifts will appear in an estimated three to five years. Now, if we built the obelisk right, you should have gotten the estimated time." The man's voice smoothly transitioned back to normal. "I wish I could explain everything to you now, but that would waste too much of the energy stored in the obelisk and would risk its journey coming to you, and for that, I apologize."
The man did a bow, but it was a bow that Ryuha had never seen before. He put his right fist on his left hip, creating an L shape from shoulder to wrist, and did so with his left arm, but that was placed at the back side hip. He continued, "But inscribed on the obelisk is our condensed knowledge of what we know on the helix system, as well as the method we have come up with to combat it. I hope it is enough, and I pray you heed our warning." The man's voice was grave, sorrowful, as he continued, "As to lend credibility to our prior statement that none of the peak powers were a match, we have left a mana signature in the obelisk of one of our strongest warriors, my father. I hope after experiencing him at his peak, you can understand the threat you face—unbidden, more of that text spilled across the screen."
Accessing Storage
Access granted searching for the Fragment of the Arcane Sovereign
Searching…...
Found Accessing compartment
Temporary unseal meant of fragment authorization granted
Unsealing
A slight grinding of stones resounded in the sect as every disciple and elder went dead quiet, listening to the man in the box's explanation. One of the elders on the balcony with Ryuha was the first to notice the slight hole that was now visible on the obelisk, as a crystalline amulet the size of a small rock floated out, glimmering in brilliance with different colors as it was bathed in the sunlight of the early afternoon.
Still mesmerized by the beautiful crystalline amulet, Ryuha wasn't prepared for what came next. A coalescence of qi burst from the amulet, blanketing the entire sect. It was at the same qi density as his own, that of the heavenly realm. He frowned, having a quick glance around. He saw the pale white faces of disciples and elders struggling under the pressure that lasted for a mere moment. The power released by the amulet increased to dwarf Ryuha's own power by such a magnitude that he did not realize he was forced to bend a knee under the assault of this amulet's strength.
Wide-eyed, he looked around. Some of the other elders were lying on the floor, with the whites of their eyes visible. He glanced at Shin Lee, who was on her hands and knees, panting heavily but still conscious. They locked eyes, and there was evident shock in her pale, sweaty face. Now, Ryuha wasn't sure if it was the weakness he was showing or the power that the amulet was displaying that had her off-kilter. He gave her a beaming smile and brought his entire level of cultivation to bear as it flared all around him.
Those elders on the brink of losing consciousness were totally knocked out by both Ryuha and the amulet's combined might. He started to rise from where he took the knee. More elders and some inner disciples flared their qi to stay conscious as the amulet increased the intensity even further. Ryuha could not believe his senses. He thought he was done advancing, but here it was, proof that there was a way past the eternal wall, and he would be the first to find it. He had a pretty good idea where to start looking first – these rifts and monster hordes the man in the box spoke of. As if reacting to Ryuha's thoughts, the man in the box spoke.
"I hope that display of power made you realize the threat you face. My father fell in only the third wave of the rifts appearing. We hope that you will be able to learn from our mistakes," and the blue box winked out. Silence reigned; a sombre air grasped the Frozen Edge Sect as the words of the man in the blue box started to sink in, but that only lasted until Ryuha started to laugh. A hearty, bellowing sound echoed as he cocked his head back and laughed like he had never done before. He triggered a qi technique and started to rise as he began to speak.
"My fellow sect elders and disciples, I have decided to sponsor all of you for the next five years. Whatever you need, I will provide. My only condition is to advance, break the shackles holding you back." Again, there was silence, only until one of the outer sect disciples bellowed a "whoop." The dam broke as more cheers of "thank you, young master" and "glory to the Frozen Edge Sect" erupted. Ryuha continued, "We will face this upcoming threat, for we are cultivators, and we live on strife and toil. If there is no struggle, there is no progression. We will start today after the finalization of the Winter Forge Festival." More cheers erupted at that. He peered around, taking in all the smiling faces of the disciples and even some elders. All but one person did not join in on the praises, and that was Shin Lee, frowning at where the obelisk now rested on the floor of the balcony.