I'm sure you're wondering why I took so much time to explain about their honeymoon. Also, I'm sure you're confused as to why this leads to the situation we are in right now, going to fight three thousand Scavenger Rank Krepsunas.
The answer is very simple. This is because of a little message found in the ruins that changed our lives forever. To elaborate more about it, maybe it's time for me to go back to the ruins.
In the evening after Darling, Asenane and Valeria had fun swimming, they headed to the ruins of the Herynas Tribe that destroyed themselves. And of course, they found nothing much there.
The Herynas Tribe had once called that glade their crown jewel. Even in death, the scale of it was undeniable. Whatever cataclysm consumed the tribe would ever be identified due to the age of the ruins. Pillars lay scattered. Stone roads were split down the center. Entire houses were nothing but collapsed rube covered by undergrowth.
Valeria had been unusually quiet when they entered the glade. Even at four, she felt the weight of absence. Asenane walked slowly beside Veneri. There was nothing valuable. However, at the exact center of the glade where the heart of the city must once have stood, rose a single pillar that was surprisingly intact.
It was at least fifteen meters tall. A deep, crystalline azure color refracted the dying sunlight into spectral shards across the ruins. Veneri stopped walking. Valeria, seated on his shoulders, tilted her head.
"Dad?"
He didn't answer. He stepped forward slowly, Asenane followed at his side.
"You recognize it, Darling?"
"Yes."
He reached the base of the pillar and lifted his hand. For a brief second, he hesitated before he touched it. The moment his palm made contact, something shifted in his expression.
"This is the same crystal I can summon."
Asenane's eyes narrowed slightly. "Your Sapphire?"
"It's not technically 'sapphire'. I called it sapphire because in my past life on Earth, it looked identical to a gemstone we classified as sapphire. When I transmigrated and realized I could summon this crystal, I told Phaenora to change my Pinnacle Tether from Crystal Materialization to Sapphire Materialization."
Asenane folded her arms. "But you've never summoned sapphire here."
"No. So whoever formed this—"
The moment he removed his hand, the pillar ignited from within.
Blinding blue light surged through its core as if a star had been sleeping inside it. The ground trembled violently. The air began to pull dust, leaves and fragments of ruin toward the pillar in a violent inhale. Instantaneously, a shockwave came out of it. Trunks of trees turned to splinters. Entire crowns of foliage tore free and were hurled hundreds of meters away from their original spots. Stone debris were you lifted from the ground and turned to dust.
Veneri reacted instantly by summoning his Protection Divinity. A translucent spherical barrier appeared around the three of them just as the shockwave hit. The ground beneath them cracked in branching fractures. Veneri's feet sank several centimeters into the earth as he anchored himself. Asenane held Valeria tightly against her chest, turning her body to shield the child instinctively despite the barrier. Her robe whipped violently in the turbulence. Valeria buried her face into her shoulder but she didn't cry.
The shockwave continued for several seconds that felt far longer. Blue shockwaves appeared in concentric rings, flattening everything in a perfect radius. The barrier dissolved the second the shockwaves stopped. Where the pillar once stood, nothing remained. In its place stood a figure.
It was a three-dimensional projection roughly four meters tall. He had long white hair running past his waist with several thin braids woven meticulously along one side. His skin was dark bronze and deeper in tone than Veneri's. His eyes were golden.
Veneri went still. He knew that face. He had seen it before when he reached the Hidden Citadel.
Vasreveilder Nov Aeteria, his grandfather.
The projection's gaze lowered slightly, meeting Veneri's.
"If this recording is active, then it is you who activated it, my grandson. And if Natas calculated correctly, you are not alone."
His eyes moved toward Asenane.
"There should be a dragon woman standing beside you."
They lowered toward Valeria, who remained tucked in her mother's arms.
"And a child too."
Valeria stared openly at the towering figure. Vasreveilder gave a small nod, as if he knew she was looking at him.
"I received that information from Natas, the Omniscient of History. When he speaks of a future configuration, he doesn't joke. Since this message is meant for you specifically, I will not waste time explaining the mechanics behind his knowledge. You will encounter them yourself. First, congratulations. You endured more than most Splits ever will. Your life on Earth was not kind to you."
Veneri was too shocked to speak. He knew that he was a Transmigrator even before he even existed?
"I was a Transmigrator as well. I did not grow up in nobility. I grew up in hunger. I survived on scraps. I learned early that the world is cruel. I stole from a bank and was shot by the police before I could escape. When I opened my eyes again, it was not on Earth."
A brief silence followed.
"But that is not why I made this. You must be in the Second Epoch Cycle. This one will be harder than the last. Also, the future of Spheraphase during this Cycle is doomed unless you intervene. When this recording ends, you will be teleported to a universal convergence known as The Inheritance."
The name echoed through the ruined glade.
"This Ceremony exists to determine and formalize the next generation of Splits. Fortunately for you, you are the only Split of Time so there will be no elimination."
The statement should have sounded reassuring but it didn't.
"Every Split stands with representatives to their authority. You have two. Afterwards, you will stand before The Nine Primordials. Now, whatever path is presented to you, choose the Timeless Path."
Veneri almost laughed at that statement. It was ages since he stopped chasing after his goal of being a Timeless after he changed his Fate.
"You have always sought to avoid your Fate and become a Timeless. This is where you return to that objective. Understand this clearly, Vastarael. Even if you ascend to Deity, you will not defeat the Deities of Mopheria as you are. They exist on a scale beyond your current comprehension. And there is the Krepsuna problem. You are far too weak to resolve it so you must become a Deity before the Second Epoch Cycle concludes. If you fail, Spheraphase will collapse and the Butterfly Effect you are meant to activate will shatter before it stabilizes."
He paused.
"The Second Epoch Cycle itself is the Butterfly Effect. It is the divergence the Time Primordial intends you to ignite. If you fail to trigger it correctly, the universe will revert to another loop. But that information will suffice for now."
The projection shifted slightly, turning toward Asenane.
"I am pleased that someone of your caliber stands beside my grandson."
His eyes lowered toward Valeria.
"And you, little girl, should be confident around your mother."
Vasreveilder returned his full attention to Veneri.
"Even if it is only through a recording I created millennia ago, it has been… interesting speaking with you."
The hologram vanished. And with it, Veneri vanished as well. One moment he stood in the ruined glade and the next he was gone.
Asenane's eyes widened. She turned sharply, scanning the flattened forest. There was no trace of him. Valeria looked around with confusion flickering across her face.
"Dad?"
Asenane sighed.
"This is not good."