Defiance of the Fall

The raft's atmospheric array kept the cosmic chill at bay, but Zac didn't activate its floodlights or rescue beacons. He was wrung dry, experiencing a bone-deep exhaustion as he slumped onto the floor. It was hard to believe less than six hours had passed since he left the bulk of the Acheron Company at the Wolf Teeth Camp. It felt like an eternity, considering how much he'd experienced.

The boundless expanse stretching around him felt like a comforting blanket shielding him from all the world's troubles. No matter where he turned, he only found darkness. It didn't look like he was inside a solar system or even close to one. He was truly in a cosmic no-man's-land with boundless nothingness stretching forever in every direction. The convenience of teleportation made it easy to forget just how empty the Multiverse was and the kind of distances involved.

Zac took out his old companion and placed it in his lap, tracing the minute cracks left from channeling Oblivion. A tired spiritual nudge answered the touch. Verun was even more drained than he after fighting the corrupted beast and activating [Primal Call]. Feeling his presence was still a comfort after losing Vivi, and he took out a vat full of high-quality blood to help Verun replenish some of its energy.

Similarly, Zac transported a pile of Longevity Treasures and Beast King carcasses to Haro's World Ring. The plant had lost a good chunk of longevity, but the Heavenrender Vine was a tyrant among Plant Kings. While the loss couldn't be fully recovered, Haro should be able to gain back part of what he lost.

Finally, he dealt with his own state, using the remaining Kill Energy to channel [Surging Rebirth]. Zac always felt reluctant to use such a hard-earned resource on recovery after the battle was over, especially when his bloodline had already stolen most of it to fuel the breakthrough. Zac didn't have many options, though. He was still racing against the clock.

Zac hadn't forgotten about his predicament, even if he wasn't worried about being stranded in the middle of nowhere. Outer space couldn't harm him now that he was a Hegemon, and he had the Yphelion stowed away in his Spatial Ring. Besides, his escape bangle had long since recovered, and he could erect one of his Teleportation Array Platforms as soon as the spatial turbulence calmed down.

He was more worried about Emily and the others. She was out there waiting for him, uncertain whether he was even alive. There were no signs of her vessel or the rest of the fortress. Zac had expected as much. Her rescue beacon was still going off, but it remained very faint even after he'd passed the spatial turbulence. She should be in the same dimension, though very far away.

Emily carried a Starflash Vessel, but those took two days to unfold. That was more than enough time to be discovered by hostiles, especially if the Technocrats and Imperials with their superior equipment lingered in the area. In fact, Emily had put herself in great danger by activating the beacon.

They were coded, but Zac wouldn't dare guarantee the signals couldn't be traced. For that reason, he didn't activate his own beacons, and he was hesitant to follow the signal. Emily understood the dangers just as well as he, so there was a high likelihood she'd deployed the beacon before moving far away. If he went, there was a high risk of encountering enemies instead of friends.

He did have a communicator strong enough to cross dimensional layers to contact someone in the immediate vicinity, but using carried the same risks. Zac was wracked with indecision, intensely regretting his Void-addled brain had made him forget to work out a solution beforehand.

A deep vibration from his spatial Ring put the matter to its edge. Emily was trying to contact him. Zac was far from combat-ready but gritted his teeth and took out the bulky communicator. He couldn't bear ignoring Emily's call. Zac activated the array, and words instantly poured from the other side.

"You're okay! Thank the seven stars!" a relieved voice said on the other side. "We saw the spear activate, and I was afraid you were still on it."

"Don't worry. I'm aces," Zac said, a frown marring his face.

It was a weight off his shoulders confirming Emily had made it through the spatial storm, but 'seven stars' was code. It meant she wasn't alone. Worse, seven stars instead of six meant outsiders were involved. Of course, she wouldn't have used code if she trusted these people.

"How are things on your end?"

"Your friends are safe," a robust, unfamiliar voice answered. "I happened to be nearby and picked them up."

Zac decisively cut the connection before sealing the communicator in an isolation container. The situation wasn't good. He'd essentially been given proof of life before this stranger took over the call. He knew he was taking a gamble by simply cutting the connection, but he needed to stall.

He simply wasn't in any state to deal with someone who could capture Emily's whole group. If he went in blindly, he'd only end up captured along with his companions. This way, he'd buy some time in case she was captured by hostiles, time he could use to figure out a counter-attack. And if the man was friendly, what did his small faux pas matter?

At least Emily knew he was fine and currently undiscovered, and she should understand why he acted as he did. Now, he needed to save himself. Sealing the communicator wasn't enough if the enemy was prepared to track the energy transmission. Zac took out a talisman and looked at it with hesitation. He gritted his teeth and flew off the raft, heading toward a dense patch of lingering Spatial Energy.

A huge explosion tore the raft apart just as he activated the talisman. Tearing pain assaulted him as space buckled like it was forming a deep ditch. A deafening pop almost burst Zac's eardrums, and deadly terror almost made Zac pass out. He desperately flashed away just before a pillar of monstrously condensed Spatial Energy burst from the Spatial Tear he'd formed.

Zac looked at the scene with wide eyes, realizing the accumulated Spatial Energy he'd passed during his escape was only a drop in the ocean compared to what the tower had deposited in the void between dimensions. Passing was impossible, and using his portable teleporters was tantamount to suicide. Even using [Flashfire Flourish] was out of the question since it passed through dimensions.

He was stuck.

Zac's heart beat with anxiety as he grappled with another solution. He'd hoped to shift dimensions and teleport away, reactivating the communicator when the Yphelion was up and running and he'd called for backup. That plan was now impossible.

Judging by the rescue beacon's distance, he had an hour or two. If the one who'd captured Emily owned a top-tier vessel, that number might be less than ten minutes. Out of better options, Zac's Draugr half sent out a large number of commands. Once again, he needed to call on his network, hoping someone was nearby.

His human half focused on recovery, desperately absorbing energy from three types of crystals. He needed to be somewhat combat-ready before Emily's captors showed up. As a small grace, [Void Heart] had recovered during the breakthrough. It began gleefully feasting on Beast Cores at an unprecedented pace.

While his drained Cosmic Core was replenished, Zac opened his status screen to better understand his gains. He knew there wasn't much one could do when faced with absolute power, but his bloodline had made the impossible possible more than once. Perhaps his breakthrough held the key to saving Emily and the others.

There was nothing new on his status screen, confirming his evolution hadn't provided attribute points or titles. Zac wasn't overly surprised, considering it was the same during his previous evolutions. It would have been nice to gain another small boost, but raw attributes weren't what he lacked right now.

Yselio had dominated him during their battle despite having lower attributes overall. Only his Dexterity had surpassed Zac's, though probably not as much as the gap indicated. It was Zac's Daos and unique advantages that were falling behind the competition. The former was a thorny issue without clear solutions, but evolving his bloodline had hopefully helped with the latter.

There was one piece of good news beyond the bloodline. The tally at the bottom indicated he'd gained just over 390,000 Merit since appearing on the battlefront, most of it over the past couple of hours. It was almost as much as he'd accrued over the past six months of constant fighting. It wasn't that the battlefront was that lucrative, though he'd gained more from a couple days of fighting than he usually did over a month.

The real windfall came from running into three sealbearers. The Kan'Tanu Curse Master and the imperial deathsworn were both sealbearers of the Starfall Court, with a bounty of 50,000 Merit on their heads. The reward came from his Flamebearer of Zecia designation, and he had already confirmed he got the full bonus even if he didn't land the finishing blow.

The two Starfall seals had been more than enough to finish the quest. But that was just the beginning.

[Flamebearer of Zecia (Campaign, Inheritance (2/?)): Accumulate 500,000 Merit through Fated Flamebearer Campaign Missions within your faction. Conquer one Middle D-grade end node. Reward: Lesser Enlightenment. (763,389/500,000)(1/1)]

He'd overshot the target by over 250,000 Merit, which confirmed Yselio was truly a Flamebearer of Ultom. The 'Lesser Enlightenment' reward held a fatal attraction to Zac after having been beaten black and blue. Unfortunately, he needed to turn the quest in at the Merit Exchange. Besides, using it in his current state would be a waste. Instead, Zac opened his bloodline screen to investigate the more pressing matter.

Bloodline [D - Corrupted] Void Emperor, [D] Children of Draug - Eoz

Talent Force of the Void - 31%, Void Zone, Void Mountain

Bloodline Nodes [D]Void Heart, [D] Spiritual Void, [D] Purity of the Void

Nodes [D] Adamance of Eoz, [D] Conviction of Eoz, [D] Immutability of Eoz, [D] Alpha Link, [D] Omega Link

Constitution [Life] Void Vajra Sublimation (Third Layer): Base Attributes +50. Vitality +500. Endurance +250. Base Attributes +5% Vitality +5%. Effect of Vitality +10%.

Everything looked roughly as he'd expected. His bloodline was still corrupted, though Zac increasingly felt his situation was a variation rather than corruption. The name of his new talent was [Void Mountain], and he already had a vague idea of what it would do after recalling how Haro reacted to his touch.

His old talents had improved, too. He'd already field-tested [Void Zone], confirming it now sported a radius of fifteen meters. It was a huge difference from the old nullification sphere, which only had a radius equal his height. The benefits weren't that noticeable when traversing dangerous regions like the Spatial Storm or the Twilight Chasm, where he got the talent.

It didn't help him much if he could weaken the environment further away. The real benefit would be seen in combat, since the biggest headache to using [Void Zone] in battle was to get in such proximity. He'd even used tricks like increasing his stature with [Vanguard of Undeath] to solve the problem. Upgrading his bloodline had largely solved that issue.

The nullification was only twice as strong as before, but Zac had already figured out the mechanics when escaping the tower. The further he contracted the sphere, the stronger it got. Middle Hegemons would find it incredibly difficult to counter the effects if he shrank it to his current minimum of five meters.

Who knew how strong it would be when he could shrink it to melee range? Even Peak Hegemons might have to be careful. The downside was the same as most D-grade abilities. It cost more than twenty times as much Void Energy to run after evolving.

Thankfully, [Force of the Void] had taken a significant leap forward after gorging itself on the tower's treasures. However, Zac couldn't find anything else new with the Bloodline Talent. Perhaps it didn't need any.

All his Void Nodes had evolved in step with his bloodline, which was a welcome surprise. The same had happened when awakening his Eoz bloodline, but he'd already confirmed that wasn't the standard, not even among Draugr.

[Void Heart] was already displaying what it could do. Like [Force of the Void], it didn't seem to have gained any new abilities. It was a straightforward upgrade to better meet the energy needs of the D-grade. The refinement speed had been accelerated more than thirty times, and it could refine far more energy with each round. Zac also suspected it'd be capable of refining higher-grade energies, such as the ancient Killing Intent, but this wasn't the time to test that theory.

His second node, [Purity of the Void], had seen a more interesting upgrade. Zac could tell its efficiency hadn't improved nearly as much as [Void Heart], but there was a mysterious space when focusing on the Hidden Node. Zac thoughtfully inspected the subspace a few seconds before his Draugr body took out an F-grade herb.

It looked like the stalk melted into his palm when he activated [Purity of the Void]. In reality, the stalk had been transported to the new subspace. He could still exert some control on the herb, and moving it around let Zac confirm the subspace was a sphere no more than half a meter across. It didn't seem to accomplish much of anything except slowly withering the herb.

Zac had an idea, and he took out a death-attuned Healing Pill. It slipped into the subspace and disappeared moments later. Only this time, it appeared in the hand of his human body. Zac's eyes gleamed excitedly, and he tried the same thing with a few other items. The transfer worked flawlessly each time, and it barely cost any Void Energy.

Low-grade items saw some erosion, similar to what you'd see inside the Void of Space. Higher-grade items weren't damaged in the slightest from such short exposure to Void Energy. He only ran into trouble when trying to send over a whole Spatial Ring. The subspace followed the standard rules of space-within-space.

Zac hesitated a few seconds before transferring the [Court Cycle Token], the Centurion Beacon, the [Foreign Gods] tome, and a few other treasures to his Draugr half. When he reached the dusty book, there was suddenly a noticeable change. Zac felt an immense pull on his Void Energy, prompting steam to rise from the pages.

The smoke gave off an eerie, alien aura. An aura that, once again, was familiar to Zac. The aura of the Lost Plane. A theory immediately formed regarding the Centurion Lighthouse project. The fortress was a subsidiary of Starfall Court, which guarded the Left Imperial Palace and the Ultom Courts. The so-called Lost Plane was something like the leakage of dead Dao from the Eternal Heritage, so it should have existed during the Limitless Empire's time.

Were the Foreign Gods, or the 'Gods in the cracks' as the deranged chef puppet called them, actually powerful corrupted beings like the Qriz'Ul?

After ten seconds, the book stopped releasing smoke, and Zac took it out back in the Ensolus Ruins. As expected, the subspace's purpose wasn't really to transfer items. It was a convenient side-effect of the quantum state the Kayar-Elu had introduced to his bloodline. The real purpose was the same as before.

The subspace was a Purification Chamber that allowed him to cleanse items, removing various forms of tainted or hostile energy, just like how the Hidden Node worked on his body. The book probably contained some corruption from the Foreign Gods. Perhaps the knowledge within was so taboo it had naturally formed.

It was a warning to tread carefully in the future. In the short run, the subspace provided a welcome two-for-one bonus. Shifting items between his bodies was just as useful as the purification. The only downsides were the limited space and its inability to deal with Spatial Items.

Zac's mind still raced with the possibilities. Hiding away important treasures was only one. He could also use the ability to smuggle things into environments where he wasn't allowed or unwilling to bring his Spatial Rings. He could provide his other half talismans and crystals if he found himself with his back against the wall.

With the first two Hidden Nodes providing more than he could've hoped for, Zac eagerly turned his attention to the final node in his Soul Aperture. However, he didn't find anything new with [Spiritual Void]. Had it simply evolved to the point where it could store higher-grade Daos? Zac refused to believe that was it, but he didn't find what had changed until he gave up to finally inspect [Void Mountain].

The illusory mountain's reappearance created a weak resonance from [Spiritual Void], though nothing happened beyond that. Could this be the key to reclaiming his lost ability, generating the Voids of Life and Death? Right now, the answer was no, but Zac remained hopeful. There wouldn't be a resonance without reason. Maybe his Daos were too weak.

More likely, the problem lay with the new sigil.

Karz's Dao Sigils had multiple features, including the ability to evolve as he absorbed Dao. Zac's sigil wasn't strong enough to stay in his Soul Aperture permanently like his Dao Apparitions, so it might not be able to showcase its full use yet. However, Zac could already feel a looming presence, so he urgently began investigating what benefits [Void Mountain] could bring in a fight.

He channeled the talent, remembering the feeling of when he had just woken up. A ferocious Void Energy surged from the mountain, and Zac directed it into the stalk from before. Its color rapidly faded until the stalk shattered like it was made from coal.

[Void Mountain] didn't just suppress energy and Dao like [Void Zone]. It extinguished it. Zac's eyes flickered in thought. If he figured out how to imbue his skills, then [Void Mountain] could add a unique corrosive effect to his abilities.

Cutting through enemy skills without losing energy, turning expensive defenses into scrap. Zac grinned at the thought of encountering Kator again. How would the reaver react if his prized War Bones suddenly turned into brittle plaster? Most importantly, the ability could prove instrumental in a potential prison break.

The discovery was exactly the kind of power-ups he needed right now, so Zac kept looking. Karz had used his sigils two ways, and Zac held great hope for the other. He had seen what kind of impact fusing with the Void had in battle. He had passed right through barriers while breaking through. What if using the sigil on himself gave him that ability?

However, a great pressure forced Zac to quickly retract his bloodline. Moments later, space shattered, and a monstrous battleship forced its way through a storm of spatial chaos. Zac solemnly looked up at the ancient construction, unable to trace its origin.

He would find out sooner rather than later.