Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 83: Pioneer Seats

The Prime-Sworn Pioneer was the first, but surely not the last.

Who said the system would only help Uriel?

Ayah and Enoch followed immediately after, their own new paths of ascension blooming, born from Uriel’s own and invigorated by his achievements.

Ayah herself was the quickest, her enlightenment and class evolution feeding directly into her path, which, using Uriel’s Prime Creature Crystals, rapidly took form.

The Apex-Hymn Path of Ascension.

Unlike other ascendants, she wouldn’t evolve by absorbing anything, but rather by adapting. Using her class, she’d forcefully confront the creature crystals, then deem them what she called a ’Prey Source’.

The moment she did so, her core would turn into what she referred to as a ’Predator Chain’ and evolve independently, using the prey source as a point of reference.

If her prey source was a fire dragon, her predator chain would evolve her into the apex predator of a fire dragon, the most optimised creature and life form for the hunt and conquest of such beings.

But not only that, her path possessed a third layer: the ’Chain Bind’, which simply referred to the contract born from her prey source.

In essence, not only would she evolve to become the apex predator of her prey source, she’d also gain the power and arsenal of her prey source, on top of having it as a contracted summon.

It was as though every one of her major evolutions counted as three!

It was a terrifying path, one the system immediately saw potential in and perfected, atop granting her various rewards to optimise her summons and budding God Class, which she’d formed after the completion of her quests.

Enoch did not slack either.

His initial evolution, caused by Uriel’s path, had granted him tremendous power, but it’d done something miraculous: it allowed him to awaken his natal spark, and with that, as he evolved, his path was born.

The Deathless Rot Path of Ascension.

Enoch’s natal spark was rooted in poison and life, a variant earth-element spark, while his path and class were rooted around death, with the shocking ability of... immortality.

A while back, Uriel had asked Enoch if he’d died ten times in the past timelines, and he’d only vaguely answered no.

The reason was simple: Enoch was nearly immortal.

He could die, and die, and die, and die, and eventually, a day later, he’d emerge again, entirely whole.

Using these abilities, his poison and lie eaters, Enoch crafted a path that, through the decay of his body, ’corroded’ and ’poisoned’ all weakness and imperfection out of himself, after which he’d revive, all while simultaneously assimilating crystals mutated by his lie eaters.

It was almost as if he’d turned his body into a warring Gu field, each of his cells battling one another to achieve pristine flawlessness, while his lie eater–twisted crystals stabilised the process and steered it using the essence of their base creature.

Unlike the other two paths, his could only be walked by himself, but in return, it was so perfect for him that it was difficult to say he wasn’t advancing the fastest out of them all.

With fulgurous speed, Ayah and Enoch shattered past the G Rank, sped across the F Rank, and rapidly reached the peak of the E Rank.

[The Apex-Hymn Pioneer has claimed the second crown!]

[The Deathless Rot Pioneer has claimed the third crown!]

[Seven Seats Remain!]

...

PAH

The cocoon of chains wrapped around Ayah burst apart, turning into sparks of golden light that vanished into nothingness.

Cross-legged, she sat on the wooden floor of her room, eyes closed and still in deep meditation.

With a casual glance, she would’ve seemed the same: a beautiful face, long curly lavender-coloured hair that fell down her back, and a tall, slender figure. Nothing appeared to have changed.

But upon closer inspection, a thin slit upon her forehead would be noticed, as well as the ridiculously lean structure of her muscles now, pronounced and tempered.

Light bent and waned around her, almost flickering in and out of being as she breathed in and out, the floors beneath her creaking as if she weighed as much as a whale.

’...’

She opened her eyes, and slowly, their dark and deep azure depths shone through with an oppressive tidal wave of force.

It was almost as if her mere gaze made the aether in the air heavier, turning it into the densest of liquids and forming an unfathomable ocean around her.

She took a breath, regaining control of her power as the weight she exuded faded, then exhaled, finally releasing all tension in her body.

She smiled, her expression radiant.

...

Ayah followed her usual routine in silence, the house much quieter than on most days.

She showered, spending quite some time cleaning herself free of the filth she’d accumulated during her seclusion, and took the opportunity to truly take care of herself.

A few hours later, feeling refreshed and clean, she headed down. As she did, the wooden steps creaked and echoed through the seemingly empty house.

Reaching the living room, her eyes slightly widened when she saw Uriel sitting on a single-seat sofa, a thick book on his lap and a warm mug in his hands as he read in pure silence.

Around his head, an intricate network of runes could be seen, playing a calming tune she could only faintly hear from a distance.

"You cut your hair?"

Her voice startled him, the runic headphones he’d crafted shattering apart as he turned to her. "Hey!"

She walked over, taking a seat on the long sofa facing him, the one he usually collapsed on while lounging with Enoch.

Getting comfortable, she smiled. "It suits you."

Uriel slicked his relatively short hair back and shook his head, a bitter expression marring his handsome face.

"I feel like I’ve lost my wings," he sighed. "It took damn near sixteen years to grow it to that length."

"It’ll probably take double the time to get my mane back."