Re: Timeless Apocalypse-Chapter 84: Brightlag Sphere

Ayah rolled her eyes at the crocodile tears welling up in his eyes.

Sliding her feet over, she laid fully on the sofa, her head resting on a thick pillow. Uriel, seeing this, snapped his fingers, and from a spell circle a blanket appeared, gently falling to cover her.

"On another note," he said as he set his mug aside, "how was your seclusion? You seem... stronger."

Inwardly, Uriel was absolutely floored by the sheer aura she carried. It wasn’t threatening, nor was it violent, but it held such weight that even he found it hard to properly breathe in her presence.

What startled him hadn’t been her voice, but the sheer chaos it caused across the room when she spoke, the aether and gravity around them suddenly feeling like they’d been multiplied a thousandfold.

"Oh!" Ayah’s eyes glimmered in excitement. "After we completed the path you had in mind and I had my enlightenment, I used it to...."

She began explaining everything that had happened to her during her retreat in extreme detail, from her evolutions up to E Rank all the way to her Apex-Hymn Path.

The more she spoke, the wider Uriel’s eyes grew.

...

Uriel almost felt like pouting.

Not only had she reached the peak of the E-Rank in just a few days, but even the potential of her path seemed to be beyond his own.

Though she was an E Ranker, she’d already undergone the equivalent of nine major evolutions, almost as many as an S Ranker would!

Not only that, but she’d also gained three permanent and ridiculously powerful contracts and summons. And that didn’t even touch on the maddening evolution of her class.

It had to be remembered that Uriel forging his path had only been possible due to the ridiculous abilities of her class.

From a spark, she could create new life forms, then rapidly evolve and genetically modify these creatures, turning them into beings as legendary as dragons and the like, if not more.

How could he not be jealous?

Though now, thanks to the system, Uriel’s path could do the same independently of her, albeit in an extremely limited manner, it was still ridiculous.

Just how powerful had she gotten?

"Let me see!" Uriel’s voice was full of curiosity.

Ayah sat up, grinning, and suddenly the slit on her forehead wiggled before opening like a set of eyelids would, revealing a third eye.

The eye was a resplendent gold, a stark contrast to her azure pupils. The moment it graced the world, it was as if Uriel had been flashbanged and blinded.

Not only that, but through his sensory mage circle, he could tell he was in a sort of domain, where Ayah could sense and feel all things and almost force her will upon them.

Had Uriel not possessed a ridiculously powerful mind by virtue of his spark and the system’s boosts, he would most likely have fallen under her control by now.

WHOOOSH!

Ayah’s third eye closed, and Uriel began to regain his vision.

"Alright, I get it," Uriel grumbled under his breath as he rubbed his eyes and cycled his natal aether.

Ayah burst out laughing.

It felt good to be the genius one, for once.

...

Hours passed as the two continued to talk, Uriel telling her parts of his adventures during her seclusion, from his path to his class.

Time flowed.

"You know, I’ve always meant to ask you this," he turned to her. "You’re a World Sentinel, right? As in, a full one?"

Curious as to where this was going, she nodded, her interest piqued. "Mhm."

Uriel caressed his chin and asked, "Where did you guys live before the apocalypse?"

"I’m not the most well-versed on what Ithuril was like before the apocalypse, but it doesn’t seem like the other humans are familiar with you," he continued.

"Did you live on another planet in the universe? Oh, does that mean there are other races in the dungeon? How was life on your planet? Did you guys train for the apocalypse? Or was it a surprise for you as well?"

Question after question spilled out, Uriel’s curiosity exploding and overloading Ayah as she barely had time to process one before a dozen more came her way.

But she reacted in a way Uriel hadn’t expected at all.

He’d thought she’d be excited to tell him about her world, like she was about most things, or simply avoid talking about it, but it was neither.

Because his Sparks were now dormant, Uriel couldn’t feel emotions, but some lingering part of his ability still let him... feel the atmosphere.

The air grew heavy.

Ayah fell quiet, her eyes darkening, becoming vacant and distant as her natal aether coiled with the burning tides of her heart.

Memories seemed to flash across her mind, and suddenly she didn’t seem like the jovial older sister he’d come to know, but something... darker.

A few moments passed before she refocused on Uriel.

"The history of the Sentinels is complicated," she began, her voice solemn, "and that is because the history of our universe is complex and broken."

Though caught off guard, Uriel didn’t interrupt and focused fully.

"We lived in a place called the Brightlag Sphere, a dimensional space as wide as dozens of planets, situated within Ithuril’s planetary core."

"Well, the youngest of us did anyway. The older sentinels had their own matters to attend to."

"How was life, you asked?" She repeated his question, a dry, humorless chuckle escaping her. "War. And chaos. That was all it was."

Uriel’s eyes widened.

"You see, us World Sentinels are a race like any other, but we are simply close to the world, so close that we could be said to be its kin."

"We are descendants of its laws and rules, in a spiritual manner, that is."

She sighed.

"And because of that, we’re divided into tribes. We had eight major tribes and countless minor tribes—for the eight major laws of the world and the countless minor ones."

"A water tribe sentinel had gifts related to that law, and fate tribe sentinels had gifts related to that law." She smiled faintly.

Uriel could immediately see where this was going, and he grimaced.

"That created a gap in power. How could a tribe controlling mere water contend with those wielding Fate, Time, Space, and Destruction? It was a lost cause from the start."

She paused, more memories surging.

"All minor tribes are part of the slave class. All major tribes are part of the ruling royal class. And the halfbreeds are in between, a serving middle class of sorts, if you will."

"They manage the slave class and carry out the will of the royals."

She looked deep into Uriel’s eyes.

"When I was younger, a young man decided to change things. He was the second prince of the Chaos Sentinel Tribe."

"He decided to abolish the system and spark change."

"So he easily rallied the slave and servant classes, then began a rebellion, spearheaded by his Chaos Tribe, which seemed to support his ideals."

"War started, and it raged on for my entire childhood. It was brutal, bloody, and long. We were once trillions, but by the end of it, we were barely in the billions."

"Thanks to my special status, I didn’t have to fight, but I saw a lot of death nonetheless."

She suddenly laughed, shaking her head.

"And in the end, nothing changed. The uprising was pointless anyway. The royal tribes led the sentinels for so long because they were simply that much more powerful."

"Back then, there were trillions of us and a few thousand of them, yet we didn’t manage to do anything substantial. It was foolish to believe things would change."

"To change the system, the Chaos Prince needed to change the very lineal heritage we all carried within ourselves and even out the odds."

Her laughter erupted once more.

"The funniest part of it all was that it had never been his goal anyway. Why would a noble care? It had all been a farce, a plan he put in motion."

"A plan to prove to the other royal tribes that we were trapped."