CHAPTER 96: FALLING THROUGH THE VOID

The stars were streaking past him.

Soren was falling endlessly through an eternal twilight.

The moment he opened his eyes, a profound sense of awe filled his mind. Neither the endless amount of stars nor the dense fog surrounding his now falling body mattered. There was only one thought his mind was preoccupied by:

“I… I escaped?! How?!”

This was a bit of a silly question. He had planned everything out exactly, and everything unfolded just as he had assumed they would. Still, there was a portion of his mind that refused to believe what had happened.

Soren, an apprentice magi with no more than a month’s worth of knowledge of the arcane, managed to fool a Yadrian saint, one of the core nine members of high Yadrian rule.

He had achieved the impossible.

From the very beginning, Soren knew what the Whispering Dream was capable of. His interactions with his puppets back in Yadria painted a picture of a master manipulator, someone who could trick the minds of people and control them, but also, to have incredible abilities in the realm of deception. Somehow, he was able to fool the Court of Nightshade by creating a field that obfuscates the thoughts of others approaching it… He was even able to create a replica of a person’s three layers that was realistic enough to fool the Beyond itself.

Faking a replica of a person’s three layers was not something any Magi or Phantasm could do. You would essentially have to trick a portion of the Beyond to believe the truth you were telling it. Of course, after witnessing Cassia’s Figments of the Serpent abilities, Soren was able to confirm that it was indeed possible.

And then, when the Whispering Dream mentioned Tazzith, everything clicked into place.

Ever since that incident during the Nightshade Raid, Soren wondered what the possible motive behind the attacker was. If he had faked his three layers to lure Soren into capturing the Nameless Culprit, what benefit could it have provided him? His plans at the time were on the brink of success—the Nameless Mist had grown far beyond the level of the Nightshade Court’s control. If he had continued escaping, stopping the corruption from growing would have been impossible.

So letting Soren capture him would contradict such a goal.

But now, he interpreted it in another way. What if, rather than spreading the corruption and plunging Yadria into darkness, the Whispering Dream was instead planning to use the Nameless Mist to undo a certain promise so that the Accord from a thousand years ago grows even weaker?

In fact, there was evidence to substantiate this claim. Just after the harrowing events of that night, an entire armada of Vynasian Voidstar Voyager ships crossed the rift and entered the world of Yarian. Soren himself witnessed such a scene unfolding, and from what he heard from the sailors and staff of the skyship, the rift gates that opened were much larger compared to the usual.

Soren doubted that such a thing happened by coincidence. From his brief conversation with the enigmatic saint, it was pretty obvious that nothing he did was wasteful in the slightest. The unfortunate events that unfolded in Yadria were now obviously a ploy to accelerate the end of this world.

How terrifying… He thought.

In fact, there was another element to this that was even scarier. If Soren’s hypothesis was true, then that would mean that the events of the Nightshade Raid were purposefully orchestrated. Which meant that Soren—the person who acquired the intel regarding the hidden location to begin with, didn’t acquire it by accident. It was leaked to him purposefully all along.

And this also leads credence to something else… Since the Whispering Dream was after him for his connection to Tazzith, one had to wonder if that too was facilitated purposefully… Did the enigmatic saint know that capturing the Nameless Culprit would lead to Soren’s imprisonment and him being sent to the Subterranean Shunning Grounds where he would gain an audience with the Demon of Knowledge, Tazzith?

It seemed that from the very beginning, everyone had been dancing in the palm of his hand without even realizing it.

All of this painted a clear picture to Soren; that the Whispering Dream’s personality was that of a deceiver… One that hides in the shadows and only strikes when the odds are in their favor.

Indeed, all deceivers have one thing in common: their desire for control.

No matter how much the Whispering Dream wants to deny not having any intrinsic goals, even the most basic of living things have desires. And deceivers are the biggest wish makers of them all.

Soren of course would know this, since he himself was a deceiver. Control could be considered his lifeline—everything felt ten times more awful without. Without control over a situation, employing effective deception would be impossible.

And that was exactly the weakness Soren wanted to exploit. If the Whispering Dream craved control, he was going to hand it to him on a silver platter.

From the very beginning, he was hoping that his stunt at trying to discreetly expand his Soul Realm would be detected. He wouldn’t have minded if it had actually worked—that would have given him more intel to work with regardless. But because he was caught so helplessly in the act, that only added more to the Whispering Dream’s control over the situation. The more control he assumed he had, the worse his guard would drop.

Of course, Soren didn’t know that he would be dragged into his own three layers afterwards. That was outside his predictions. But in the end, it all served his plan regardless. In fact, it might have been more effective than he had assumed.

With his thoughts echoing for all to hear, Soren was in the most vulnerable state of being he could have ever been in—the Whispering Dream had full control over the situation. Not even his thoughts could escape his grasp.

In the Whispering Dream’s mind, there was no way for Soren to defy him anymore. Every trick, every plan, every lie was brought out into the open for him to see…

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

That was until Soren played his final hidden card.

If he had to be honest, this plan had many layers of luck associated with it. First was the fact that the Whispering Dream had no awareness in regards to Soren acquiring a forgotten rune fragment. He was able to confirm this fairly early—the Whispering Dream mentioned that even if Soren died, his legacy would continue on through his Soul Weapon. But if the enigmatic saint had been aware of his connection to [The Faerie Court], then such a statement would make no sense.

Even if this world was destroyed and consumed by the Rift, Soren would still be able to escape. What he was witnessing all around him was proof of this.

The second thing that went in his favor was the corruption lurking within his Heart’s Shroud. It was fairly ironic for him to say, but he was grateful for the existence of those faint and sinister whispers hiding deep within the fog of his three layers… At one point, he almost died to their influence, but this time, they played heavily in his ability to escape. If they did not exist, the Whispering Dream would have waltzed his way into his Heart’s Shroud and read all of his memories, learning all about the existence of the forgotten rune…

But by far the most surprising thing he had seen had to be his True Self navigating its way toward the enigmatic saint on its own. Although the Whispering Dream did say he had no reason to try and confront the whispers of the rift, if forced to, he didn’t doubt that the enigmatic saint would have taken the risk anyway.

After all, Soren wouldn’t be able to communicate with Tazzith without his Soul Weapon.

All of this played a significant role in his escape. If even one of these factors was missing or changed slightly, his fate—as ironic as it was to say—would be entirely different from what it was now.

Of course, there were still other things to consider. For one, the existence of the forgotten rune fragment as well as [The Faerie Court] has been revealed to the Whispering Dream. Not only did that mean that his trick wouldn’t work again, but the enigmatic saint might even covet the ability for himself…

And then there was the fact that the Whispering Dream would probably continue his plans regardless… Even if he couldn’t kill two birds with one stone, he could still settle for one.

The Greenfather Ritual was still in danger of being disrupted.

So many things to consider… Soren couldn’t help but frown. Even though he had all the time in the world to consider his plans going forward, his entire body and mind refused to act.

Soren was tired. Extremely tired. His fatigue from the past two months of journeying across the Beyond still clung to him… Not to mention, his narrow escape from the enigmatic saint had likely shaved years off his life… Every miniscule action he took had required meticulous thought and planning. All of it was carefully crafted in order for him to enact his final plan of escape. His brain was fried.

I deserve some fucking rest…

As he plummeted endlessly through the void, his eyes began to flutter. Just before they slowly closed, Soren’s lips curved into a smile. A smile of joy mixed with a hinge of madness.

A smile of victory.

----------------------------------------

An indescribable amount of time had passed when Soren finally awoke from his deep slumber. It felt as if his consciousness had drifted away for years. But with it, also came the freshness of mind to face another day… Or night. The world was eternally at night after all.

The scenery around him didn’t change. The stars out in the distance were shining all the same, but there were some faint differences… The constellations were not exactly how he remembered them. And then there was the fog surrounding him as well—it too had grown much thicker than before.

Soren smiled. “Is this really the Rift? I thought it would be more dangerous.”

Of course, the moment he said those words, he instantly regretted them.

Somewhere in the distance, far beyond the very stars plastered across the twilight sky, colossal shadows beyond his comprehension were moving… They were hard to describe with just his eyes—they looked both formless and distinct? Both purposeful yet devoid of meaning. As if laws of the world didn’t apply to them.

Colossal might have been the downplay of the century too. Those shadows looked bigger than space itself. Soren felt as if entire galaxies could fit within them…

What the…

Just as his eyes were about to focus even more on the strange shadows, faint whispers began to invade his mind. Soren immediately recognized them—without even an ounce of hesitation, he closed his eyes and turned away.

The whispers stopped…

How… How terrifying… If he had continued to gaze at the shadows for longer than a second, his mind would have collapsed. In fact, he had still managed to get corrupted anyway—Soren could feel the whispers scratching against his skull, begging to be listened to…

Still, they were slowly fading away. He guessed that his Traveler Blessing was behind it.

I guess I still have to thank Unknown for this… Regardless of his feelings, Soren doubted he would have survived without it just now. It did get him to wonder though: was fate the reason he had acquired the fragment of a fragment of a forgotten rune?

From what he understood, the blessing Mr. Unknown had granted him was only meant to be used once—to allow him to travel to Yarian safely. He had never expected Soren to obtain that rune fragment during his journey across the Rift.

And yet, that very same blessing was now allowing him to travel to [The Faerie Court] with a slight assurance. He doubted it would last forever—the Whispering Dream himself said that its powers were waning. If he wanted to keep using this ability of his, he would need another more effective way of defending himself when journeying across the Rift.

As these thoughts played out in his mind, Soren continued to keep his eyes closed, but out of curiosity, he wanted to see where exactly he was plummeting. His body was shooting rapidly through the abyss without stopping, but the faint changes he had seen around him were enough of a hint to know that his destination was going to arrive sooner or later…

And eventually, it did.

After what felt like an eternity, Soren saw something out in the distance. Unlike the faint and colorful stars around him, the presence of this… thing was different. It felt much more alive.

As his body continued to fall closer and closer toward it, more details became apparent. Large structures were scattered all around, like massive islands floating endlessly in space. At the center of them was a larger structure that seemed to link everything all together.

“Is that… The Faerie Court?”

Responding to his thoughts, a cold yet shrewd voice entered his mind:

“Indeed it is. Welcome to the Realm of Realms, Scribe of Worlds…”

Soren instantly froze. This was beyond his wildest expectations.

“Who… Who the hell are you?”

The voice replied, “Nothing more than a figment of your imagination.”