CHAPTER 81: ASCENSION

Throughout Andre's career as an inquisition knight, not once did he ever question his duties. He was a tool. A tool that held sharp edges and did not hesitate one bit to draw blood. Due to his talents and ability to never question his orders, he was labeled as the 'Loyal Giant.' He gracefully rose through the ranks of the Inquisition Order and successfully ascended each Celestial Stage. In all his years of service, he never viewed the church from any perspective other than piety and worship. Even the elements he had contracted were those of purity, a symbol of the Monarch's rule over the Spirit World.

And yet, here he was, facing the decapitated body of a former classmate of his. This wasn't the first time he needed to slay a loved one; heretics can come from any section of the tree, as the wise priest would say. And yet, there was something different about this peculiar heretical execution. It was strange. There were countless other souls he had extinguished that were much closer to him than Merlin ever was, and yet, he felt no joy in taking her life. He found no honor or divine purpose in cutting her throat.

His eyes sharply darted toward his bloodied sword. The crimson liquid did not drip from it; the Spirit World was not one to hold a sense of direction, nor did it have a gravitational field of any kind. He watched as numerous clumps of her blood floated freely in the air. Her severed head held a calm expression, contrary to the state of her violet hair, which was pointing in all directions as if she was a hedgehog. He continued to stare at her now lifeless body. Could he have done anything else besides kill her?

He shook his head violently then rubbed his temples. Calm down Andre. What in the Monarch's name has gotten to you... He understood his mission perfectly. The intel the church had obtained regarding the Ironclad Mercenary's involvement was clear. They were heretics planning on assisting rebels who wish to destroy the empire's holy foundations. Such cases can only be met with cold-hearted executions.

Even now, his mission was not fully complete. The church's orders to the Inquisition were to retrieve the bodies of the heretics; they had planned on parading them during Saint Wisdom Day alongside the Witch of Calamity's grand execution. Only through such means will they be able to send a message to the rest of the Noble Faction and the citizenry: disobeying the will of the church will result in death.

Andre glanced at her dismembered body and head, and clicked his tongue. He turned around to face the other direction.

"Merlin, I'll make a special case for you. I will allow the malevolent spirits to feast on your soul while your body decays in the spirit world. Consider this my mercy toward you. May the monarch forgive me for my sins."

Just as he was about to walk away and exit the Spirit World, his now somewhat dormant [Sensory-Boost] kicked into action. It was a sensation he had not expected, especially since there were clearly no more enemies in the area. His eyes darted toward the source.

Merlin's cold, pale corpse reflected in his eyes. She was clearly already dead. And yet, he could sense the stirring of cosmic force emanating from within her form. It was a cosmic force type he had never seen before in his life. Dark, sinister particles that seemed to resemble noise or static formed the basis of its form. It was as if he was looking at a computer glitch; an error in the rendering of the simulation.

Andre watched in horror as Merlin's body rapidly decayed. This was no longer the natural decay of a rotting corpse. No, it was as if he was watching time speed up. First her skin turned to ash, then the muscles and ligaments followed by the bones until all that was left was a pile of dust. His eyes were filled with dread as he watched her very clothes turn into nothingness.

However, the bizarreness continued. The very same dust particles that once formed her body began to morph into different objects. A pile of ash turned into a ripe, red apple. Another pile transformed into a chair. The rest shifted forms freely, as if phantoms were playing with clay. In utter disbelief, Andre witnessed the puppet show, which featured Merlin's 'ashes', carrying on for what seemed like an eternity.

Then a miracle appeared. Within the cloud of dust forming the remains of her body, a small fracture manifested in the fabric of the Spirit World. A violent suction force drew in all the dust particles, consuming them akin to a mini black hole. The orb of darkness formed and slowly grew bigger, as more and more matter entered into its gapping maw. After consuming everything left of Merlin, it transmogrified into a new shape; a shape full of life.

A shape that resembled Merlin's original form.

Andre stood silently with his eyes widened at the scene. Despite the serene vibrance of the ethereal Spirit World, his heart remained turbulent. His eyes trailed toward 'Merlin', her female form slowly taking shape. Every proportion of her body remained the same, except it was veiled by darkness, as if the very stars were contained within her flesh. After her body finished forming, her eyes slowly fluttered awake.

The first thing Merlin did was observe her body. She propped her hands in front of her chest, analyzing her new form encompassed by the void. Andre observed as her face twisted into a smile. The stars illuminating within her twinkled resplendently.

She peered her head up and looked directly at Andre, who had already placed his sword into a guard stance. He channeled what remaining Ethyria he had into his sword, turning it into a blade of light.

In all his 15 years of service, not once had he ever experienced anything like this. A shiver ran down his spine as he observed Merlin staring at her now destroyed stave. Its apex, which once contorted into a spiral that formed the shape of a portal, was cracked. The aged oak encompassing its form had a large split in the middle. Peering her eyes within the crack, a small stone pulsating in dark energy slowly began to turn into dust.

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Merlin looked back up at Andre and smiled. She then controlled the darkness encompassing her body, morphing it into the shape of her clothes. Stars continued to twinkle within her witch's dress.

"I guess you didn't expect that, did you?"

Andre gulped down his saliva. "What the hell are you?"

"What do you mean?" She tilted her head to the side.

"You know exactly what I mean! You died! I killed you! How are you alive!?"

She propped her hand over her shin. "Hmm... How should I answer you?..."

Silence prevailed for a few seconds before Merlin smiled and snapped her fingers.

"It's fairly simple. I used my death as a way to ascend. I am sure you have realized it by now, but... I am no longer a Celestial. I have pierced through the Celestial Veil."

Shock overtook his face. "W-what..." Even though his suspicions were already there, it was a completely different story hearing it directly from his foe. From what he remembered of his academy days, those with a perfect 9.0 dimensionality paired with a Stage 9 Celestial body were able to utilize an Ascension Stone to advance further beyond the realms of mortality.

This metamorphosis, however, is extremely dangerous. For one to pierce through the celestial veil, they would need not only the previous two requirements, but also an iron will. The ascension stone will transform into a soul core and force its way into you once activated. From there, your already solidified dimensionality will merge with your original soul core, forming a Domain Singularity.

The agony of this fusion is unparalleled; some describe it to be akin to your very essence being ground to dust, only to be reconstituted and subjected to the torment anew. Those who lack a proper will risk losing control, transforming into volatile embodiments of cosmic force capable of obliterating entire sectors of the Astrum Aeternum with their cataclysmic detonations.

However, the reward for those who do manage to pass this trial was evident. By piercing through the Celestial Veil, they become a fully fledged Dimensional Eldritch. Those in this realm are said to hold even more authority over their respective ethyric realm. Due to the Ascension Stone, they are granted a new Soul Core above the one they had previously, essentially giving them the opportunity to master the ways of another domain above the one they currently possess.

Andre looked at Merlin's mythical form; the surrounding darkness had encapsulated into her witch's dress; translucent stars twinkling within the void. This was clearly an impossibility. Even if what his eyes were showing it to be true, it did not make sense whatsoever.

No matter how nonchalantly Merlin explained it, it was no question that her dimensionality was only 8.74; this was something she herself had confirmed. How could one ascend above the realm of Celestials without a perfect dimensionality?

Sensing his emotions, Merlin smiled. "It's because of this." She pointed toward her now broken stave. "You are probably thinking about how I could have ascended with my non-perfect dimensionality, right? It's due to this stone I found inside my Staff of Knowledge."

Andre cast his gaze toward the broken artifact. Pieces of what was left of the small stone embedded within the staff's apex were clearly visible. They looked like pieces of charcoal that had been overused.

Merlin continued: "As you may know, my dimensionality has not reached perfection. However, I found a way around this. Stellar Artifacts, as you may know, hold not only an Ethyric Core but also a pseudo dimensionality of their own. Without it, they would not be able to connect to whatever ethyric realm they were designed for. "

"From the manuscripts I had uncovered of that outsider, I realized that my Midnight Magic was missing something. Even though I was mixing the correct ratios of Darkness and Space magic, the final result was only a mere poor imitation. The spell you saw forming around the battlefield was exactly just that."

"And so, I pondered over it for a bit and realized the reason. My domain did not match the intended outcome. The true power of Midnight Magic comes from its ability to invoke the authorities of Chaos. In other words, Entropy."

Andre blinked a few times, "Entropy..."

She nodded, "Indeed. Order births disorder, and disorder births chaos. This is Entropy."

"You may not have realized it, but your final slash to my throat not only ended my life but also destroyed my Staff of Knowledge, which resulted in the Void Egg residing inside it to crack apart. During my final moments before my decapitation, I invoked the Ascension Stone that I had on my body at the time, which started the merging process between my Dimensionality and Soul Core. However, due to my unexpected death, the merger did not happen. Instead, the two pieces of my soul split apart entirely. However, due to the formation of your [Battle-Cage], the pieces of my soul had nowhere to go but linger around."

"While that was occurring, the Ascension Stone transformed into a new Soul Core and invaded my now dying body. In the same way, the Dimensionality stored within the Void Egg, which was already at 9.0, also fell apart. Due to all these pieces aligning, my Soul Core merged with the Dimensionality of the Void Egg while my original dimensionality enveloped my newly formed soul core."

Andre resisted the urge to drop his sword. "This... This is impossible! You mean to tell me that you were able to use your death to swap your Mystic archetype dimensionality with that of a Chaos domain dimensionality? Then you used this new dimensionality as the basis for your Domain Singularity?! What kind of nonsense is this?"

She chuckled. "Indeed... It was a fairly big gamble. If the Void Egg's dimensionality drifted apart from me, I would not have been able to turn into a Dimensional Eldritch of the Chaos Domain. Without this change, using the abilities of Chaos to cast Entropy over my own body and then reforming it would have been impossible. I got lucky."

He slammed his palm against his forehead. "Lucky, my ass! Why did you have to go through all of this risk?! You could have simply contributed a bit more to the Spirit World and naturally increased your dimensionality to perfection. Then, utilizing your Ascension Stone to pierce through the Celestial Veil as a Knowledge Domain Mystic would have been far easier than this method! If you wanted to become a chaos domain user, you had the ability to train your extra Soul Core in that direction!"

Merlin smiled. "It is because I wanted my foundations to be purely in the Chaos Domain. The Spirit World... There is something within it that my even my divinations failed to understand. I hoped to distance myself completely from it. The Tangential Void, on the other hand held far greater prospects for me due to my already acquired research material."

Merlin looked at Andre, who was still stricken with disbelief, and smiled. She bowed to him by lifting each end of her skirt, "Thank you Andre... For killing me."

End of Chapter