Chapter 88: You Can Now Breathe

The Commander smiled, “I would be surprised if you did, but it is a good thing you have not began cultivating any Art in secret, else I would have been helpless on a way to help you without having to strip your foundations from your bones.” she paused, “That would be very painful, and despite how much pain you can bear, most would never survive it.”

She walked up to Elias and placed a hand on his shoulder, “We would get to what you need to do next on your road to be an Ascendant, but before that… I want to show you something.”

Suddenly, Elias’s legs were off the floor as the Commander raised her hands up a bit, and carried him as if he weighed nothing. Before he could even ask why she was treating him like a wet piece of cloth, space seemed to shift around them, and Elias gasped as he found himself in the air, nowhere near the city of Stormfall, as below him was a vast forest.

They were not falling, and if not for his legs dangling in the air, he may have believed that the Commander was standing on something in midair; however, he knew that she did not need anything so mundane.

The weird dream that he had a moment before entered his mind, and Elias suppressed a shudder. He remembered the vision thatthe corrupted child had placed in his mind as he showed him the destruction of Stormfall and the corpse of the Commander floating in midair while holding a broken sword.

It was as if, even in death, the earth was still unworthy to hold her body, because she was of the heavens.

The hand of the Commander still remained on his shoulder, but he was now facing away from her, and he wanted to turn to look at her when a sudden scream from inside the forest drew his attention.

It was the sound of a man who seemed to be in pain, and the scream repeated itself before it was cut off.

“Good, you adjusted well to height and short-distance teleportation,” the voice of the Commander sounded behind him, as the faint scent of her perfume touched his nose, “This is a skill that most would not get used to for the rest of their lives. Have you ever left Stormfall, Elias?”

“I don’t believe I have, Commander. I have barely moved more than a mile inside the desert before I returned.” Elias wondered why he was being asked this question and why he was brought here, and most importantly, what was that scream that seemed as if a man had just been killed?

“A hundred miles in the desert is this oasis… the forest below you. There is an underground pool that is large enough to serve the needs of tens of thousands of people, and they were the ones who planted the trees here, using the water from that pool, and over the last six hundred years, several generations of those who have depended on this pool have been slowly expanding this forest, and one day they hope to reclaim the desert.”

Then she paused for a while as if in thought, and Elias could feel her hand tightening a bit on his shoulder, “But this choice has cost them. The Desert is a harsh place, and they have had to face bad weather, sickness, diseases, and yet, this is the least of their problems, since most adult lose many vulnerabilities when they gain their Status Screen and begin to add points to their physique. Their main problems are more… aware.”

Elias thought he could hear faint laughter ringing out from below, and he frowned as he began to guess the direction that this story was heading towards. Nature could be controlled, and when it could not, then it could be avoided, but the nature of a man’s heart is something else.

“Numerous fallen races patrol the deserts, Beastmen of different variants, spawns of Rune Beasts, and so many other dangers. The inhabitants of this oasis have been fighting for the last six hundred years, and their lives are so dangerous that it is rare to see anyone who lives beyond fifty.”

Elias frowned, deepened, “Forgive me, Commander, but you say this oasis is a hundred miles from the city, then even though it would be dangerous, is it not a wiser option to leave this place and take shelter in the city? I guess they would have to do a lot of menial work for a while, but that can earn them money that could enhance their living conditions and not have to worry about all the dangers of keeping this place safe.”

The Commander did not reply to him for a moment before she said, “It usually takes a few minutes for you to feel it, and it should be happening any time… now.”

Elias gasped as he felt one of the strangest sensations he had ever felt in his life. It was as if an invisible burden had been on his shoulders, including on his senses, and it had been stripped away.

The world exploded into colors as Elias began to see… everything. He saw Lumina travelling in vast streams above him, and when he peered at his hands, he could see the Lumina running in his veins. The sky above was filled with so many celestial wonders that he could stare at it forever, and he would not be able to comprehend a single percent.

His thoughts were clearer, his eyesight was better, and he could now see through the canopy of the forest and track the source of the screams. Yet even that was a minor distraction to the forest itself, as, in his senses, it seemed to have transformed into a world filled with green flames, with the trees drawing Lumina directly from the sun with their leaves and sending it into the earth.

Yes, the sun above was a profound source of Lumina, and this was the first time that Elias could see it as well as feel it.

There was so much happening here that Elias felt his mind grinding to a halt, and he desperately needed something to hold on to so he did not collapse under the weight of the true state of reality, and then the Commander began speaking, and he desperately grabbed on to her voice and the pressure of her hand on his shoulder.

“Many have forgotten that this was the home of the gods, and it contained wonders and mysteries beyond what any mortal mind can fathom. Inside the cities that the Ascendant have built to keep everyone safe from the dangers of the world, there is nothing but a massive shroud that hides the mysteries of the heavens from your sight. You have been living in a prison all your life, Elias, and for the first time, you are seeing the world without the filters of the Heavenly Restrictions placed upon it… Take your time, child, savor the feeling of being complete, allow your body to remember what it was like to be free.”

Elias did not know how long he spent breathing in deeply, as his lungs drew in air as if he had never breathed before, and if not for his Will, he would be screaming at the top of his lungs, because the simple act of breathing was extremely pleasurable, as every cell in his body cheered.

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