MTLNOVEL Chapter 754
The battle path of the two Kings is always shifting, and as the four travelers on this Demonic world make their way closer to the throne, their odds of running into the crossfire of these two forces of nature exponentially increases.
After being momentarily distracted by the energy output of Lydia's last use of her domain a few exchanges ago, the King became a bit irritated and decided to get rid of the disturbance. One of the long-range arrows was deflected by the sword-wielding King from roughly 12,000 kilometers away.
While this ricochet is nowhere near the force of a full-powered targeted attack from one of the Kings, it is still extremely strong.
The entire sky and area of demonic energy around that deflected energy wave come rocketing toward the group, and only Fisher notices it in time as his aura is spread the furthest.
He attempts to hold it off by summoning his ranked-up buff that could have easily killed first-class demonic beasts, but the second they hit this massive arrow of yellow light, all one thousand of the full-powered sword strikes are shattered, and their auras completely negated and devoured.
As Fisher's words of warning come from his lips, and the rest of the group hears them, a deadly cold ripple of nauseating energy flows through them.
Monk wastes no time and crushes his teleport crystal back to the moon base to leave, as out of everyone here, he knows the danger of this feeling best.
Luna follows, as she attempts to activate her perception buff to see what is happening, but only Qi is stimulated; her grasp on manipulating mana begins to drastically decrease. So, she leaves for the moon base before it's too late.
Fisher looks back to make eye contact with Lydia, and they too crush their crystals as they realize their situation.
—All of the holographic feeds Ava watches of this event crackle with static, and she can't even get a proper visual of what really happened. But she does know whatever it was must have truly been strong if even those two ran...
—
The final holographic update is back on the moon.
The whole team has made it out unscathed. While Lydia mentally beats herself up for creating such a massive shockwave, attracting the King's attention, Fisher continuously claims it's not only her fault. He released many blasts of intimidation too.
In the back of his mind as they were trekking through Kelfar, he believed that if they accidentally ran into the two Kings, that they could handle them if necessary. Now, he's glad they found out this way instead of facing them head on...
He replays the overwhelming power his senses were just exposed to and tries to make sense of it for hours. It was something greater than just mana and divine energy. Just like the Wyvern's bones, those Kings feel as though they're superior lifeforms.
Meanwhile, Ava watches recordings of Monk proudly lining up over two hundred individual artifacts in a private room where Bri allows them to stay in the moon base for a few hours.
He walks up and down the aisles of black rocks, creating in-depth holograms to send to Alveron, and the slug's silver suit of armor walks the aisles with him to get his thoughts on the findings.
Monk mutters a few words.
"This language is far different from the Originator text back on my world... well... most of it..."
He stops at the end of one of the aisles, in front of an enormous cylinder-shaped rock full of illegible writing.
"Well, except this one. I found it beneath the Wyvern's bones. While there were many other treasures beneath it, I'm certain this is what it was protecting. It writes in the same language as a subset of texts back on the human world... My translations are rough, but I can make out the words of an eternal war, something about nobility, and lastly, the most recent etchings here are about a soldier. I believe this is pronounced..." Ṟ𝔞ꞐÓ₿Ёᶊ
Monk squints at a symbol that has been carved deeply into the black stone and speaks aloud a name that sends shivers down Ava's spine as she hears it.
"Sera...phel? Yeah, Seraphel. They call him their last hope. Maybe that was the name of the member of their race that challenged the throne on this world? Or ascended before? Or after? Maybe he's from another world, or their religion's name for a god? I'm not sure... I need more context to paint the full picture."
Monk continues walking down the aisles and looks up at the knight that follows him.
"Though, I do know you were definitely right about one thing. The artifacts on my world are far older than these. This language must be some kind of common tongue. Maybe something nobility shares in the Upper Realm...? This is the first time I'm seeing anything about Nobles. None of the human texts ever use that word."
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He scratches his bald head and continues thinking and muttering to himself.
—
Ava's eyes are wide as more footage speeds by of the group receiving new teleport crystals and preparing to return down to the Demonic World with more safety precautions this time.
As she prepares to send a message back, the final bit of footage Bri sends is a live feed from inside Abby's cultivation chamber.
Her yellow core is so massive that it looks like it has grown outside of her body. It shouldn't be possible, but both her body and core appear to be unaffected—as if a yellow core bigger than her entire torso is normal.
For the last few days inside this chamber, almost 100% of the ambient divine energy dispelled by fragments has continuously compacted into Abby's core, and Ava can't keep her eyes off her system while she watches a True Core collapse begin with such strange variables.
Green sparkling light covers Abby's body, and upon close inspection, the recording feeds sending visuals of this room can see right through her body.
All of the physical matter and energy feedback data shows that Abby is in a completely natural state, and that her core is still inside her chest.
But... that is certainly not reality.
The same glistening green energy holds her core intact, and bright white and yellow light fills the room, distorting the live feeds.
All Ava sees is the green ethereal energy tighten, and the yellow threads in her core begin to compress.
If Ava wasn't a green core herself, she would assume that the green energy creating this strange superposition was divine energy; but it certainly looks like something else, a unique mana and Qi-based reaction that she can't exactly understand without being there.
—
When the feed cuts off for the day's recording, Ava sends an update back.
[Minute 5][Ava]: Message Received.
She's shocked by the strange True Core compression but is equally consumed in thought about the fact that this Wyvern's planet is somehow linked to the Wyvern up here in the Citadel... Not to mention the Commanders' close brush with death.
While those down in the Lower Realm have days to think about her replies, Ava's psyche is being bombarded with days' worth of messages she must conceptualize in seconds.
[Day 24 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Artifact Data.
[Day 25 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Second Send Off.
[Day 26 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Abby Compressed Her True Core.
[Day 27 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Observations.
[Day 28 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] New Prospecting Progress.
High-definition images and exact replicated holograms of each and every artifact Monk brought back are sent into Ava's system.
They are in far better detail than any other past messages sent back, as if the actual black rocks are here in front of her. These are done with a device provided by Alveron, as this is the data the slug has requested in exchange for the humans keeping the rocks themselves.
Another visual of the Commanders teleporting back down to the Demonic World follows this, and they begin trekking off in the opposite direction of the main base than where they traveled before.
They are a similar distance from the throne no matter which direction they move, as it is on the complete opposite pole of the world. The team has decided to look for more stray artifacts for now at a safe distance rather than attempting to get anywhere near the Kings again.
Even over 10 thousand kilometers away, they could swat them away like flies... It's best to stay out of their business.
—
The next footage Ava sees is the aftermath of Abby's True Core Compression.
It took three full days, but now the external hologram footage matches what the live body and energy reading stats state. Whatever that glistening green form was is not active anymore; and there is a burning hot white and yellow True Core glowing in the woman's chest.
Small fractures line the training room's walls, and live videos of the entire moon base fortress show six additional layers of the structure shaking and fracturing during her breakthrough climax.
However, the base itself is meant to handle stress like this.
There are a total of 52 high-grade barriers between Abby and the outside atmosphere on every side. The inner cultivation room she sits in may only be the size of a large mansion, but the base itself is bigger than the entire Vice Region.
In between each barrier, there are high amounts of mana, divine energy, and shock-absorbing materials from many 1st Class worlds that get thicker and thicker. The final black wall surrounding the outside of the fortress is multiple kilometers thick.
The outer 30 walls aren't even glowing with the slightest glint of yellow threads, as there isnt enough energy being used for the entire structure's system to be deployed.
Comments made by the silver knight after her display seem to give the impression that this was a very unique event, and it will have great data to study once Abby leaves. However, energy output-wise, Alveron states that this was expected; and these structures have seen plenty of similar fractures like this over the millennia of past uses.
It is just an aura shockwave afterall, it's not like Abby is directly attacking the base to try and break it.
—
In the following two days of footage attached, where Abby continues her progress saturating her True Core, all of the circulating yellow divine threads tether with the fractures in the walls, and any signs of damage are now completely gone...
Ava sends her message back to update that they are on the sixth minute and the time has not stabilized yet, and the process continues over and over.
Another 15 days pass in the Lower Realm, reports from Day 29 all the way up to 43 come back in just a matter of minutes.
Ava replies back again.
[Minute 9][Ava]: Message Received. Time distortion is still unstable.
She's watched another two weeks of footage of the party of Commanders covering a massive portion of the Demonic globe that they have not yet explored. Thousands of Soul Weapons and Demonic corpses are taken into their storage systems, and two more tombs of similar size to the Spider's Den are found as well.
One exciting detail that comes back is Bri consolidating her yellow core on Day 42, but other than that, there is nothing of great importance.
Footage of the generals cultivating doesn't seem to change much. Two work on saturating their true cores, while the other two work on gathering enough threads to trigger collapses.
Another string of updates comes in—Day 44, 45, 46, and 47—all filled with more artifact discovery and standard footage from the bases.
However, the final ping makes Ava raise an eyebrow, as she expected the other general to compress her core first.
[Day 48 Update][Briana]: [Hologram Attached] Arie's True Core Compression has begun.