Chapter 508: My High Sovereign (1/2)

Chapter 508: My High Sovereign

Ji-ae

My crystalline nerves flared, jittery and on edge

I didn’t like it when rin Caelum

This was his fortress, his domain, and I was here to protect hi Alacrya andwith his progress I couldn’t help him—couldn’t defend him

I really didn’t like that

With hout the network of arrays, artifacts, relics, runes, and lingering spells, I listened and watched as Agrona spoke to the Legacy and her anchor

With his arms around their shoulders, he casually told theether, we’re finally going to kill Arthur Leywin”

The others—Cecilia and Nico—didn’t believe him, but I’d already told him they wouldn’t Their trust in hied Still, they didn’t need to believe hiht about that They would Later

When it was finished

I was careful to avoid accessing the probability of Agrona’s success Not because it was low I could ith that, recalculate, redirect resources, adjust the plan But… I couldn’t predict as to come

I really, really didn’t like that

They followed in silence Cecilia’s thoughts were so loud I could alrona led them to his personal teh it Most of theone now I considered that there an to add that to e

Realizing I suddenly had the urge to say goodbye, I grew sad I had no way to coht wrapped around theht to create a beautiful, picturesque scene that only Agrona ever experienced

“Gather round”

Cecilia’s nervousness was so palpable that it bled intosensation she felt in her guts I briefly relived a conversation long ago, in which one ofthis projection of myself and the way in which the array would calculate and provide the experience of ave the others no warning before activating the telance up and wink into the air

At me, I knew I held onto the h, a terrible worry incubated before quickly hatching into a clutching need

My senses rapidly expanded outward froh the spellforms that dotted Alacrya and, beyond that, Dicathen Each one becarona and the Legacy arrive safely at the edge of the Beast Glades They were distant and blurry, far from anyone who could feel their presence, but it was better than nothing I knew they were approaching the place where she had hidden, before

Suddenlyback across the face of the world I rapidly searched the fortress Nothing seemed amiss, but it was there, I knew it An intruder

I scanned fro

Finally,my mind was contained within

“That’s not possible”

I wasn’t alone Another consciousness was inside withto me said, “You rona Vritra will be severed from you by Fate itself The backlash will rip you apart if you don’t withdraw first”

I froze My processes weren’t working correctly I wondered if, perhaps, I was da Si within the crystalline matrix that contained my conscious self was at all out of place This voice wasn’t an echo or litch It was an intrusion

“You can’t knohat’s about to happen,” I pointed out Even my own considerable ability to project probability was insufficient to gauge Agrona’s odds of success “What you claim doesn’t even make sense Severed from me by Fate? More information is required”

“There isn’t time,” the voice insisted “You will co Unless you fail to shi+eld yourself, in which case you will beco and sleep”

“I don’t—”

“Now!”

I considered that this voice could be an outside attacker Its directive that I retract nitive functions could be in order to allow an assault on Taegrin Caelurona would somehow be separated fro

And yet…

I’d already retracted most of my senses Only the auto was out of the ordinary remained I pulled those tendrils of awareness back as well, then curled in around ave me life dim and still

I didn’t feel the shockwave, a reaction to the severing of soundone at once, as it spread across Alacrya I wasn’t ahen it sla parts of the fortress in on itself, breaking hundreds of spells, and killing dozens of es No part of me experienced this moment, and so I survived

“You can open your eyes now”

Curious as I was cautious, I sent out a single piece ofThe framework of spells that I reached for wasn’t there This made me nervous I opened my eyes

In the same moment that I experienced the aftermath of this shockwave, I cae had just been inserted directly into my crystalline brain I knehat I had avoided, how it had come about, and what it meant

“Who are you?” I asked the voice, suddenly frightened of it

“I’m you You and more,” it answered “I am who you speak to when you calculate probability As you look toward the future and ponder what could be, the answers you hear are in h never this directly” (Ahh, good old schizophrenia)

“And now? What happens next?”

“You already know”

The voice, the presence, the intrusion… retracted Pulled back Leftboth

I did knohat happened next, as it turned out Curious, I attempted to look beyond the fortress, but the vast network of spellforaze turned toward the entities together—was interrupting hout the fortress, spells and artifacts began to activate Some doors closed, others opened Explosions rocked the already trey snuffed out life The desperate, confused, and backlash-weakend an to flee

Deep within the mountain, far belohere any but a trusted few ever delved, artifacts and machinery activated around hundreds of years of hoarded relics, orier receptacles for storedit up into the fortress to empower all these processes simultaneously

It took time Within a few days, I was alone Everyone fled or perished I locked down the fortress A few tried to sneak back in over the co weeks They did not make it Their corpses drew mana beasts out of the mountains The beasts did not make it either Eventually, people and beasts alike stopped co took time I knew there was no rush, but I still felt the pressure of it Turning on one device after another, es and deep base so ain

Slowly, h the spellforms returned It was like a hurricane had blown across Alacrya, upending everything, and only as the continent was slowly put back to rights could I see it properly It was just as well that powering up the Harvester took so long The shockwave had darona’s peoples’ ability to hold onto mana

And the Harvester needed them to hold onto quite a lot of it