Chapter 39: No Gods Above

Downspire, one of the first bunkers of the Children of Praise, in their search for unfreezing the world.

Somewhere along the way, they came up with the idea of using Abyssal creatures to fuel a core, and it had worked. The core, later known as the Black Sun, had caused time to move throughout the entire bunker, a remarkable achievement.

But its black color was unnatural, since normal cores are white, with a golden tint. Now, they considered this a consequence of them using Abyssal monsters as the fuel, but was that the only effect that came with it?

The bunker was later abandoned by the Children when the Queen’s troops were getting closer to it, and that was the end of it for some time.

After their plan had failed, and they fell under the Queen’s control, becoming her knights, Downspirel was corrupted by her majesty, alongside the Abyss.

The curse, known as the Spiral Of Darkness, was a powerful being of the harbinger status, only having gods and demigods stronger than it.

With his powers, he was able to devour those who decided to see the bunker, trapping them in an infinite staircase, where they would soon die of hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and in many other ways.

Now, in one of its feasts, one of the humans jumped off, coming face to face with him.

While it had been unexpected, it didn’t matter that much; it actually made it faster.

But as he was devouring the human, a light appeared, the light of Praise.

And soon, he was killed by whom he recognized to be the Last Child of Praise, The Fool.

…

…

Aether smirked, putting the note back into his pocket.

By what he knew, that was the summary of the Downspire bunker, its beginning and its ending. It was quite honorable to think he had a place in its history.

He was just one of the people living in it, but also its saviour.

’Wait, where was my room?’

If remembered correctly, there were thirteen rooms in the dormitory, but he didn’t think any belonged to him, so where did he even sleep? Was he even part of the research in Downspirel?

Well, either way, he was still its saviour.

They had left Downspire some time ago, and the walk back up was as exhausting as the one down.

And on how they had climbed up, Elpis had carried a crate with him, and because it took a lot of energy to do so. They were taking a break under a tree, with a pure silver frame blessing them with its warmth.

Aether rested his back against the spine of the tree. Looking at the sun, he missed it quite a lot. Well, actually, he didn’t see it quite a lot in the Withered either, so this wasn’t really a downgrade.

He was bored, out of his mind even. Everyone else was sleeping, yet he couldn’t bat an eye, maybe because he had rested enough inside of Downspire while Avrie was doing her thing, but he wasn’t tired at all.

His feet were enjoying their break; it was just that he wasn’t getting enough stimulation, so he did the only thing he could: he summoned his codex.

***

[Character Codex: Sync Stable]

Name: Aether Moirai

Age: 14

Race: Human

Affiliation: Royal Family

[Path]: —The Fool—

>The unknowing wandered the realm of the known, trying to find a way to defeat that is forgotten by the known and the unknown.

Knowledge Rank — [Fragment]

>116/1000 knowledge shard

Codex Class — [Reader]

> Sync Rate: 9%

Affinity —[Restricted]

>———————

[Affinity Bane]: —Stranded Resolve —

[Unstable connection to affinity, thresholds are restricted.]

[Skills / Abilities]

Wild Abilities — [Shadow Speech],[Mask of the Fool]

Skills— [Echo Word]

[Relics]

—[Hair extension]

— [Cloak of Dread]

***

An excited smile broke on his face, looking at his shard.

He had gained many, with only three kills. It was impressive, very impressive.

A Bearer Demon, one with the power to kill the minds of those unfortunate to see it. A horrifying beast that had probably killed more humans than he knew.

A Seeker Beast, a living arbor that had developed its core by devouring humans, the one who had beaten even Elpis, and had almost taken his life with it.

A Harbinger Beast, one created by the Queen and the Abyss itself, who had been given the role of eating anyone who tried going inside Downspire and trying to uncover its secrets.

They were all… formidable creatures, yet he had killed all as a reader, and with one strike.

Even more, the first two had been defeated by a normal blade, not even a relic.

The monsters inside definitely were enough for the godspawn rank of the book, but they had been easy to kill. Was that the reason for the reader class?

If he thought about it, he should have figured out that the only way for the difficulty to be that of the reader class, would be if he had a God help him, and none other then the legendary Praise, the one who had blessed the world, and the God of the kingdom he had been trapped inside for almost half of his life.

It was an honor, yes, to be its last vessel, but he… wasn’t such a fan.

While it had helped him quite a lot, and has been treating him a lot better than the Abyss… if he had to choose between the two, it would be the Abyss. Well, none, but in the circumstance that he has to pick one, it would be The Forgotten.

It seemed like a joke, even to himself, but it was the truth.

The God of Praise was too good; he felt as if it wasn’t so honest as it seemed, like it wanted something, just couldn’t say what. While the Abyss was horrid, it was honest; he could be prepared for it, he could live through its attempts because he knew they were happening.

But Praise was secretive; he told only what was needed. He felt as if it was lying to him sometimes, well, not entirely, it just manipulated the context and such. He felt as if it were desperate.

That time with Chaos, it said his dream resonance, whatever it meant, had risen to one hundred, the maximum, and the log said that Praise had poured its will into his hands.

It didn’t seem like a powerful god, and definitely not one that could call itself The Killer of The Abyss.

If it really was who he called himself, time would have been given back to the world a long time ago.

Instead, it chose thirteen vessels and made them do it, which inevitably failed.

He felt as if it was trying to control him, yet mask it as hope and help.

His eye twitched at that thought.

“Whoever it is, Praise or The Abyss, I won’t let any control my life, I alone shall decide so.”

It was a big statement for a Reader to say, even more so one that has been the vessel of both.

He stared at the sky, feeling himself getting unusually tired, even though he had been resting for a while just before. Maybe it was his body saying that it needed a break, or just that his brain being exhausted; even so, he lay down near the fire and let himself fall into the realm of dreams.

…

…

Whenever he opened his eyelids again, he found himself being the last to awaken, with Elpis and Avrie eating some of the meat they had cooked in the bunker, since it was the only place where they could actually cook food.

Hearing his stomach scream at him, he also grabbed a piece to devour.

After satisfying their needs, it was time to depart… but where to? That was what Aether wanted to ask, but before he could, Elpis had already answered his question.

“There is one more bunker inside the Outskirts; the rest are inside the Rings. We could go look for anything inside since it’s near our trail to the Rings.”

Avrie nodded, excited to find more information about the Sun and how it was developed.

Aether, too, was a little excited, not because of finding knowledge, but because he knew that was where the last note had to be. And if it wasn’t, there was still a log left there by J., and he wasn’t going to miss it.

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