Situated far in Sigil City, a modest blue building sat between two raucous inns.
Unlike the clamorous city outside, the interior felt like a world apart, it was silent, serene, and subtly enchanting.
Delicate golden threads floated across the air, glowing softly like strands of starlight. The walls were translucent, shifting in color and depth as if breathing with the space itself.
Deep within this building, in a hall where the walls were panels of light and flowing scripts.
Tall figures with mirrored skin stood in silence on two sides before an arched gateway.
Their heads were bowed in utmost veneration as if making a sacred worship.
Moments passed, then the stone archway shimmered.
A fragrance came first
something like moonlight distilled through spring petals.
Then a figure.
She wore a flowing blue dress, its color a perfect mirror of her water-blue eyes.
A calm and peaceful aura diffused into the hallway, creating a soothing, almost hypnotic feeling, and Just by standing there, she made the space feel quiet, whole.
Everyone bowed even further, their expression reverent.
Her translucent lashes fluttered gently as she looked around. She didn't speak, but merely raised her nearly transparent hand, just slightly.
The air hummed softly in response, and a whirlpool of light shimmered into life. It rotated gently like a breeze in
Without a word, everyone in the hallway began marching into it, disappearing in a flash of light.
After the last person entered, Sylune stretched out her hand. The whirlpool of light floated closer to her and condensed into a softly glowing crystal, round and translucent like frozen starlight.
She smiled faintly as she held it, then her palm rippled like water, and the crystal sank into her skin, like a child returning to it's home. She raised her hand again and another whirlpool of light conjured, but it wasn't a portal this time, rather, everything around her: the gateway, the panels of light, the floating scripts. Everything bursted into specks of light and floated into the whirlpool.
Down the hall, specks of light littered the air as the translucent walls, the delicate golden threads floating across the air, the chandelier, floors, furnitures, all of them bursted into the same tiny embers of light, and floated in Sylune's direction, then entered the whirlpool.
After a while, the last of the specks entered, and the whirlpool, again, became a translucent crystal, sinking into her palm.
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Her water-blue eyes gazed around the empty space that now looked like any normal building in the City.
The realm within it was gone.
She then closed her eyes, as if performing a ritual.
Her body started glowing softly like moonlight.
BURST!
She bursted into thousands of specks of light, and floated up the building.
The specks phased through the ceiling and appeared in the dark night outside.
They ascended high in the sky like fireflies and went towards the twin moon above.
Despite such a big scene, nobody seemed to notice a thing, everyone went about their bustle.
The specks vanished one by one before they could reach the moon, until none was left.
------
The Red World.
Jin Yu stopped just a step from the stone cliff, gazing up at the gigantic door ahead.
It was grey in colour, Massive and towering, probably one of the largest in the cavern.
Compared to it, he looked like a tiny stone in front of a mountain.
What could possibly be in there?.
Jin Yu wondered, a faint awe in his heart.
The only thing he'd ever seen so large was the Titan.
A slight shiver went down his spine as he remembered the Snake massive eyes.
Fuckin crawlies!
He cursed.
And took a step forward, his foot landed on the cliff with a soft thud. As expected, he was sucked in instantly, his figure appearing in front of the gate.
A grey layer of film appeared around the cliff, preventing going back, only a way forward.
The film colour is different.
He noted, and looked at a stone cliff quite far from his, a black film surrounded the whole place, preventing him from seeing inside.
It was pulsing darkly like a demon's lair.
Is she even alive?.
He wondered.
Whatever.
He stepped closer to the gate and looked at the mechanisms beside it, it was a panel etched in old scripts. There were weird inscriptions and glyphs on it.
They looked like jumbled nonsense to Jin Yu, so he ignored them and glanced at the red, stone-like button beside the mechanism. It was pulsing with a faint, rhythmic light, as if waiting to be pressed.
Just before he could reach out to do so.
Ding!
Ancient Will absorbed.
Ding!
Ancient Will absorbed.
Ding!
Ancient Will absorbed.
Jin Yu paused for a beat, then furrowed his brow. "No breakthrough?"
He looked at his progress bar.
Hostile Qi absorbed: 109.5%
Breakthrough progress: 79.2%
Jin Yu frowned.
A whole three ancient Will, and no breakthrough? I broke through with only one earlier!.
Heh system, are you glitching?
Ding!
No.
"Then explain, or are you blind, can't you see what happened."
Silence.
"May the silence choke you to death!" He cursed angrily.
"Tell me why the value decreased!" he added, frowning in displeasure.
DING!
The ding rang out louder than usual, like it was trying to burst his eardrum.
Jin Yu eyes widened. "What the-!"
A cold mechanical voice cut in.
"The higher the host realm, the higher the requirements for breakthrough."
Jin Yu narrowed his eyes. “You’re sentient, aren’t you?”
Silence.
He nodded slowly. Then faster. As if a grand conspiracy had just clicked into place. “I knew it. I fuckin knew it. Ever since you told me Velkharra wasn’t my personal junkyard, I had this creeping feeling. But nooo—you just sit there, eyes wide like sausages, watching me dance on death’s edge like it's theatre. You must have lost a few chips upstairs. Who even made you? Must’ve been—”
A cold voice cut him off.
"Your godfather"
Jin Yu mouth hung open. "..Did you just.... roast me?"
The voice returned, still void of emotion, still not quite male or female. "The system is your guide to Sovereignty, not your Mother."
Jin Yu mouth formed a perfect O. He slowly pressed his lips together and nodded. Repeatedly. “…Forget it. Forget it. I won’t argue with a glorified talking brick. You don’t even have a body, that’s insult enough.”
The system didn’t respond.
Cold silence.
Jin Yu slammed his palm against the red button beside the mechanism, imagining it was the system’s smug nonexistent face.
Creak.
His head snapped toward the massive gate. “…So easy?”
Siiiiiishhhhhh!
A grey mist slithered out from the crack.
Jin Yu’s brows drew together. I don’t like easy things.
Easy things are ominous.
Creeeak.
SIIIIIIIIIIISHHHHH!
More of the gas spilled out, rushing like a silent plague, swallowing the air around him.
Ding!
Soul Decay rejected.
His expression lightened. Now that's better.
