Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 1180: A Battle Against Fate

Hegemony only had three bottlenecks to E-grade's seventy-five. In return, each was like walking a tightrope where the smallest mistake meant death. The only way to upgrade one's core was through a process of breaking down and rebuilding. Pathways needed to be multiplied and expanded, and schematics needed to be upgraded to accommodate higher energy levels and loftier Daos.

Tackling the minor bottlenecks of Hegemony could be broken down into three stages: ignition, ascension, and formation. The fuel for the process was already stored within the core. It was the spirituality you'd infused into your somewhat barren Cosmic Core during the first twenty-five levels of Hegemony. Ignition meant unleashing those accumulations to return the core to a malleable state.

A cultivator's Cosmic Core had natural fault lines that allowed for a controlled release, lessening the risk of damage or death from the ignition. Even then, the forces involved were far too great for the core to withstand. Like a tree bending with the winds instead of forcibly enduring, the core would actually collapse into a set number of pieces. Ascension meant upgrading those pieces individually, while formation was to put it all back together.

Simple enough, in theory, at least. The reality was seldom so neat and clean. Pretty much all Cultivators had imperfections in their cores, stemming from lacking comprehension, Daos, and mistakes or mismatches in the Cultivation Manuals. Using treasures or pills to assist the Core Formation also left its mark.

Every blemish was an unplanned faultline during the ignition. As a result, the controlled release usually devolved into a chaotic explosion. Some turbulence was fine, even expected, so long as you kept the overall situation in check. Yet most who challenged the bottleneck died from the ignition.

Mortals, true to form, were even worse off. Their cores were mashed together with foreign materials. They absolutely had faultlines, though they were rarely planned. Beyond the imperfections they shared with cultivators, they also had to deal with the seams of improperly fused materials and sequelae from the crude Core Formation Method useda far cry from the natural breakpoints formed by the Dao.

Even in the best of scenarios, triggering a breakthrough could be likened to activating a bomb. That was why mortals, and most cultivators on the frontier, aimed for as weak a Cosmic Core as possible. It was the only way they'd survive the initial eruption. If they somehow survived, they could try to reform something better from the rubble while adding new materials to raise its grade.

Whether Cultivator or Mortal, everyone wanted to minimize the danger of the first step. A popular method on the frontier was to bring the Cosmic Core out of your body and dismantle it in a reinforced pressure chamber similar to a Skill Upgrading Array. It would lessen the dangers, but it would severely worsen the quality of the finished product.

Not that it was an option for Zac, who couldn't take out his Cosmic Core from the quantum space. Established factions had better methods to assist through the three stages, relying on a common heritage or bloodline. Zac had actually gotten a few such methods from Tavza, but they were useless for him. His path was too different, and you had to be a cultivator to use them.

Zac considered reworking one of them for his future breakthroughs, considering each bottleneck would be deadlier than the last. Today, he'd opted for a simpler process, and the difficulties he'd face would let him adjust for the future.

The Core Formation Platform before him was the best solution Zac could find. It was based on designs from a Pre-system age when energy was impure and cultivation more heterogenic. Cultivators faced danger levels similar to the mortals of today, so the Core Formation Array came with unusually sturdy barriers. Hopefully, they'd be sturdy enough to contain the ignition of Zac's immense foundations.

Surrounding the main array were refinement arrays, just like during his first breakthrough. They were obviously not as good as those in the Perennial Vastness, but they had been custom-designed to deal with the materials going into his breakthrough.

Zac inspected every single array twice over. He trusted in Galau's discernment, but the unique insight awarded from the tainted lake water had a penchant for finding things others missed. Truthfully, he'd already performed these scans when getting the arrays, and everything still looked in order.

Instead of rushing into things, Zac sat down atop the two refinement arrays and closed his eyes. Dense clouds of Death and Conflict surrounded his Draugr half while his human side enjoyed the vibrant air of the Life-Conflict attuned forest.

Zac's two bodies were rarely in the same place, mostly by design. Dealing with the confusion brought by overlapping sights and sensations had gotten easier, but he still fought better when keeping his halves separate. As such, each side was always off doing its own thing, and Zac had long since grown accustomed to having two trains of thought run parallel. It helped him accomplish more during his limited time, but there couldn't be such a disconnect during his breakthrough.

Gradually, it all crystallized into a singular. Thoughts harmonized, and the line between Zac and Arcaz disappeared. Zac remained unmoving for another five hours, taking in the surrounding Daos before the Temporal Chamber distorted them. Finally, it was time. His two bodies moved as one, converging in the cave's center.

Zac took out a glistening orb thrumming with Temporal Energy and activated it. A storm of time rippled out from the cave's center, covering more and more ground. The Temporal Chamber he'd used was one of the best available in the Merit Exchange, costing more than ten times as much as the single-occupant versions his subordinates used.

Paying over 150,000 Merit for a Temporal Chamber hurt, but it was the only way to cover his whole arrangement. Luckily, he'd only needed to spend another 55,000 on materials as the Alliance and the Undead Empire provided everything else he lacked. The cave and its clouds of energy froze in his vision before regaining its momentum when swallowed by the expansion.

The Conflict-empowered war between Life and Death shook the two-thirds of his cave that had become temporally locked. Some slipped through the Temporal Chamber's barrier, instantly freezing because of the difference in time flow. Leakage was impossible to avoid since the Spatial Batteries were still running, readily replacing what was lost to maintain the required density.

The escaped energies were quickly forming an opaque bubble. When his cave returned to the river of time, the accumulated leakage would become a bomb that shook the whole mountain. Zac didn't have the time to worry about that, facing a more immediate threat.

Zac groaned as time unraveled around him, trying to simultaneously enforce two trajectories on his bodies. Part of him was being pushed to rejoin the natural velocity, while some remained outside time's domain. It was impossible to exist in two separate times at once, and Zac felt his body being ripped apart on a molecular level.

Having expected the outcome, Zac threw out a small clay puppet that grew into an alien figure with four arms. Glowing runes appeared on its hands that absorbed the temporal paradox appearing around Zac. Cracks rapidly appeared across the puppet as it took on the punishment meant for someone else. It shattered in seconds after having borne the brunt of the gathered forces. Zac was still facing his bodies' disintegration, but he was confident now that energies had reached manageable levels.

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Time, ultimately, was Dao rather than Law. And Dao could be countered. Two spheres of [Void Zone] doused the energies in the Temporal Chamber's center, superimposing as Draugr and Human stood right next to each other. Releasing his bloodline talent from both bodies simultaneously actually strengthened its nullification, and the tearing agony was reduced to dull pain.

Zac kept [Void Zone] running for the next thirty minutes until the punishment relented. Zac exhaled as he got to his feet. He'd come out mostly unscathed, except for the thousands of micro-tears that had opened up within his body. The small wounds were already closing thanks to the monstrous recovery awarded from his Void Vajra Constitution.

Still, this was just the first temporal infraction. He'd have to endure an even greater calamity upon returning to normal time, one that would grow deadlier for every second he spent on the inside. He'd exhausted two-thirds of his Void Energy to tide the lesser of the two backlashes. Would his energy stores be enough when he emerged? Zac shook his head as he took out a Void Core. Like the energy accumulating outside, that was a problem for later.

Time was limited, yet Zac spent the next twelve hours recovering to a perfect state, using the pause to review his blueprint and Cosmic Core. The temporal fluctuations around him had mostly stabilized at that point. He still felt slightly out of phase with the Temporal Chamber, though not to the point where he had to delay his breakthrough.

Zac was already sitting atop the individual Core Formation platforms. He couldn't see his other half through the dense energy and trees, but his Soul Senses could just barely touch in the cave's center. Not that he was interested in looking around. His attention was turned inward, on his Duplicity Core, to be exact.

The Kayar-Elu presented him with a shocking surprise the last time he broke through. As this day crept closer, Zac often found himself scanning the indecipherable patterns covering his Duplicity Core, trying to discern or intuit if something similar would happen again. He never found anything suspicious, though it didn't do much to alleviate Zac's fears.

His current state of two separated bodies wasn't part of the original script, which could cause unexpected problems when reforming his core. There were no indications that was the case, and Leandra's tepid reaction to his two-body situation actually felt quite reassuring.

There was only one way to find out the truth. Zac took a steadying breath as he pushed against a particular spot on the Duplicity Core. A hatch opened without complaint, and Zac suddenly felt a tremendous drain on his Void Energy and Dao Avatars. A flash of panic galloped through Zac's mind before he noticed a mysterious undulation. One was followed by another, and Zac felt the energy within his Cosmic Core stir.

The Kayar-Elu had come prepared.

A Cultivator only needed to rotate their manual and channel their Daos to trigger the spiritual ignition. A Mortal lacked that kind of connection with their core and had to rely on more forceful methods. Zac had prepared pills and talismans just for the occasion, but it looked like they wouldn't be needed today. His Duplicity Core was actually mimicking the effect of a cultivation manual perfectly attuned to his core. His core would ignite when the ripples grew strong enough.

Zac took out another Void Core to refuel through [Void Heart] while monitoring the progress. He had no first-hand experience with what would come next, but he understood his core better than almost any cultivator. When Zac felt the ignition imminent, he finally activated the Core Formation Arrays.

Hundreds of glimmering runes echoing his Evolutionary Path appeared in the life-attuned forest, forming a bubble around him. Meanwhile, Inexorable Runes drenched the Miasmic forest in darkness. All ambient energy was dragged over, and it looked like it simply disappeared when touching the runes.

In reality, the energy was absorbed and funneled into matching sets of runes that had sprouted inside Zac's bodies. Initially, they formed a protective barrier enclosing his Duplicity Core. Zac activated [Void Mountain] before pushing the arrangement through the hatch inside a blob of Void Energy. It worked.

Life, Death, Conflict, and Void joined together, and two spheres became one. An impregnable barrier based on the same concepts as his Cosmic Core shielded the Duplicity Core's inner wall, just like [Hollow Core] did during his previous breakthrough. Zac grinned at the effortless formation. His new Bloodline Talent was truly a gift from the Heavens. It unified Dao and Void, effortlessly replicating the harmonizing effect of the Chaos Motes.

No, it went one step further. The illusory mountain disappeared, yet the trinity barrier remained as stable as can be. All the requirements for forming a stable structure inside the quantum space were already in place. The Duplicity Core's undulations also passed through the barrier without issue, pushing his core closer to ignition.

Zac's core wasn't like a normal mortal's. It was made from outside materials, but each addition had been woven into a whole with skill and precision. The core was already qualified for a second breakthrough after its formation, and it had seen great improvements since. With his Duplicity Core triggering a more harmonic ignition, he was even better positioned.

Yet Zac felt beads of sweat trickle down his backs as the energies within his core grew stronger. Soon, his core was vibrating from the pent-up pressure. He might have everything in place, but his core was far beyond the norm. The System had categorized it as S-grade Energy Capacity and Potential, and he had needed shocking amounts of energy for every level. Even elites could have reached level 175 ten times over on the energy he'd accumulated. Now, ten months of struggle were about to be unleashed in one go.

The first cracks finally appeared at the seams between materials, releasing terrifying discharges of spirituality like solar flares painted in his Dao. Zac was prepared, covering the spots with layered Mental Energy to contain the leak and balance the energy distribution. It was futile. His barriers may as well have been paper when the first cracks triggered a destructive chain reaction.

The explosion felt like a true death, with Zac's vision momentarily going white. Like a sun going supernova, his core rapidly expanded while a shroud of supercondensed energy and Dao took the vanguard. The pain was unbearable, but the shock to his mind was actually greater. His soul hadn't been damaged. However, the scene taking place in the quantum space was breathtaking.

Zac felt like he was witnessing the birth of a universea universe fully crafted according to his path. The feeling only grew stronger as the shockwave rapidly expanded, warping Zac's perception until it seemed as though the small quantum space held an area larger than his mountain range. And it actually was.

The immense forces released from the spiritual ignition created a temporary subspace. It wasn't wrong to say it was the embryo of the Inner World you'd form when stepping into C-grade. This was just a taste of what Monarchs experienced every day. Zac's thoughts couldn't help but drift to the distant future when he formed the real thing.

How extraordinary would that scene be? Of course, this subspace wasn't stable enough to last very long. Exactly how long you had mainly depended on the number of imperfections in your core and your control over the process.

Anything over thirty days was generally considered a perfect ignition. If you barely survived or other missteps occurred, you only had days to somehow put everything back in place. If you really messed up, the space would collapse and take you with it.

The sobering notion cleared Zac's mind. He rallied his soul, pushing Void Energy and dozens of mental tendrils into the storm the moment it crashed into the Core Formation Array's barrier. The array was among the best Zecia had to offer and tailored to his needs. And yet, the shield groaned and strained under the monstrous amounts of unleashed energy.

The arrays fought back, forcibly drawing immense amounts of energy to bolster its defenses. But the full weight of Zac's Cosmic Core couldn't be denied. Cracks spread in the shield, and streaks of energy pushed through the gaps. Zac looked at the Duplicity Core with worry and swore when the streaks passed right through it. Instead, Zac's bodies were the ones to withstand the blast.

Curses turned into wet groans as Zac's midriffs exploded with almost perfect symmetry. The rampaging energy only lost traces of its momentum from digging through his flesh, and the Core Formation Array's outer barrier only managed to trap half. The rest continued into the forest, undoing Triv's efforts in one swoop.

Every streak escaping his arrangement meant his core was permanently losing some spirituality while the temporary subspace was growing more unstable. It was regrettable, even if Zac knew from the get-go this was an inevitable outcome with his foundations. Not being knocked unconscious while your core ripped you apart from within was considered a rousing success.

Blood and ichor pooled atop the platform, triggering soothing energies to rise from below. They helped his natural recovery, yet new wounds opened as old ones closed. The storm was only growing fiercer after being rebuffed by the barrier. Zac needed to take charge of the process before he became another cultivator dying from overestimating their capabilities.

This was a battle against fate, one Zac intended to win.