The duo walked across the bridge in silence. Up ahead was an oceanic horizon, to the left a line of crimson beneath the darkness above. To the right was a similar mass of gold.
Nicholas felt a smaller hand slip into his and looked down. Azotreh was still staring straight forward beside him, but they were trembling a little. Nicholas was a little confused, but squeezed the hand anyway, hopefully reassuring Azotreh.
It took them no time at all to reach the end of that horizon, though it felt like an eternity had passed. Getting closer to the wall separating this odd rainbow space from the blue beyond, Nicholas saw a few holes in the seamless mass of deep blue. Cracks stretched across it, and some parts had even fallen away. Nicholas couldn't see through those parts, nor could he see through the gate, but it didn't scare him.
Azotreh's trembling had intensified, but also clearly shifted in reasoning. Turning from nervousness and fear to excitement. Excitement to see what was beyond the veil, and to see another facet of their own existence.
The gate fit only one of them at a time, so Nicholas stood back and let Azotreh lead. They glanced back at him for a quiet moment before turning back and walking through the gate. Nicholas followed soon after.
They both stood on what seemed to be a beach of sapphire sand. It glimmered beneath their feet, though they didn't leave footprints when their feet lifted. Turning around, rather than the endless expanse of what seemed to be a rainbow sea, the water behind them was a bright blue. It seemed to glow before them.
The sky was almost black, with swirls of deep blue and purple. While the soul had a bright sky filled with wonder, this one seemed creepier. Shapes warped and changed near the dome that separated this place from whatever was beyond.
Also unlike the soul realm, the dome over this space dipped down in the center, supported by the obelisk in the center of this realm. The grand spiked pillar in this space was also a deep blue, shimmering with symbols of almost liquid red, yellow, blue, white, black, and gold.
But the obelisk didn't draw the attention immediately. Up ahead, the sapphire shore turned to an almost polished stone. On the stone, in escalating rings, tens of multicolored dots vibrated slightly in the air. Like stars stripped from the sky, they glimmered white, though if they approached, they'd know that the little lights had shifting colors, only appearing white from their current distance.
Most importantly, the ground around the obelisk was a mass of pulsing, beating flesh. Massive curved bone spines stretched up around the middle of the mass, like the teeth of a particularly creepy monster.
In the air above the mass of flesh, a blue bubble floated. It was tethered to the center of the mass, just below what they assumed was the bottom of the obelisk. Within, a golden salamander was curled. Most of its tail was black as the night sky, though the rest was still pure gold.
The pair slowly approached the rocky island, stepping onto the blue stone with careful steps. They assumed the rock was at least a bit slippery, but it wasn't. Their feet gripped the stone as well as they did the sand.
They ascended the massive staircase, stair by massive stair. The pair could feel that each stair represented a different section on their status sheet. The first was a terrace of the blue stone, woven with thin strands of white and bright orange light. They shone like veins, pulsing with magic. It had the most little stars of any of the steps.
The second was empty. The stone making up its construction seemed more refined, though not woven with any of the veins seen on the previous. After that was another empty stair covered in what seemed to be veins flowing with real blood. The veins all branched out of a single central point; they could see a stream of blood flowing from the base of the next stair. Nicholas assumed there were others, as he could hear the sound of very slowly flowing liquid from the left or right.
After that, they stepped onto a stair with green and gold crystalline spikes rising from the smooth blue stone. Veins of magic connected the spikes like the giant web of a spider. Following that was a stair with the same design, though the crystals were white and deep purple instead of green and gold. Both stairs had no stars.
The stair after was made of a lighter blue stone than the ones before it, and covered in small helixes of rainbow light. On it sat three stars, one bright blue, one perfectly clear, and one a swirling mass of rainbow energy.
After that was what seemed to be a stair of black scales rather than the blue stone of the rest. Over it were three stars like the last, though one was much brighter than the other two.
Following were another two empty stairs. The first returned to the standard blue and had a single ring in its center made from a helix mix of black and white light, from which were streams of varied colors. The second was instead covered in small dancing lights that seemed to dance against a shifting background of the blue stone, though they stopped when directly observed.
After that was another stair covered in crisscrossing veins of slightly glowing crimson blood. Oddly, there were three streams on this level, one was strongly flowing and deep crimson. The other two seemed small by comparison, barely letting a drop out, and were clear like water and the same blue of the ocean below, respectively. This one had four stars.
After that was a step that seemed slightly crushed and covered in clashing but interwoven lines of bright blue and orange. It held two stars, one a deep purple and red surrounded by a halo of ruby light, the other a pure black also surrounded by a ruby light.
Next was a step of stone with thin lines of shining gold. Unlike the others, which seemed to pulse as they flowed, these lines flowed smoothly.
Then another empty stair, with six bright lights shining from within the stone. Scarlet, coral, gold, oceanic, ebony, and ivory. They seemed to create a ring around the stair. White closest to the previous, black closest to the next, with the other four making a middle ring. Nicholas actually couldn't see the other side, only seeing the blue, gold, and scarlet, but was sure that the color opposite him was pink for some reason. Azotreh quickly ran around the stair when Nicholas asked them to, returning soon after with confirmation.
The stair after had no lines of energy, but the stone around its solitary star seemed to be closer to purple, with small glittering spots of gold. After that was one massive stair divided into several smaller ones. Eleven smaller stairs to be specific. Each one had at least one star, with several of them having more.
Following that was another stair, also divided into several smaller groups. This stair seemed less… real than the others. Rather than smooth stone, stepping on it felt more like stepping on very tense threads. Like snapping one would bring the whole thing crashing down.
After that was a third stair divided into multiple smaller ones, though several of the smaller terraces had no stars at all. Each one had a slightly different design, but all were covered in very dense runic script that neither Nicholas nor Azotreh could make heads or tails of.
The next was also divided into six colors, though it wasn't made from the blue stone that seemed to reflect those colors. In fact, it wasn't even made of stone at all. Stepping on it, their feet sank about half an inch into a cerulean fluid. To its left was a marigold fluid, and to its right, a milky one. Starting with the cerulean fluid, Nicholas was pretty sure the colors were milky white, oily black, bright gold, crimson red, and marigold yellow. Yet again, he wasn't sure why, but after last time, he thought there wasn't a reason to make Azotreh run around the entire stair just to confirm something he believed.
After that was a stair reflecting rainbow lights from seemingly nowhere. Rather than true stone, this one looked closer to a deep blue crystal. It also appeared to contain the same kaleidoscope of colors, refracted within and reflected from a point above. Looking up, Nicholas only saw the same swirling blue and purple light as before.
Following that was another empty stair that looked to be covered in thin rainbow roots stretching from the bottom of the next stair up. The roots were just thin enough to not be felt underfoot, but large enough to be seen. After which there was another empty stair that seemed to hold only the circle like that of the eighth stair.
The following stair was divided into seven large stairs, each of which was divided into a varied number of smaller stairs. Each of those was divided into a different number of even smaller stairs, while each of those was further divided into ten stairs each. What seemed to be an eleventh flickered in and out of existence right on the edge of each next stair up. Each of the smallest stairs had exactly 92 stars of varied colors, though only the first three stairs had actually glowing stars. The rest were dark, but clearly present. How Nicholas knew each had 92 was yet again a mystery. Instead of making Azotreh run, he just asked, to which Azotreh nodded. 92.
Finally, they reached the last two major stairs. The first was divided into three smaller stairs, one transparent and seeming to contain parts of the body, the second transparent and seeming to bounce a little, and the third seeming like just water. Though the third had something swimming in it, or many somethings, from the ripples in the pool. Finally, the last step before the flesh and obelisk was transparent and cerulean colored, with only one star hovering over it.
With a wet squelch, the pair stepped onto the mass of flesh and made their way to the obelisk. Beneath the beating flesh was something hard and uneven. Small holes in the flesh revealed what seemed to be white bone. Despite the ground beating like a giant heart, it wasn't unstable to stand on. Not even a little.
Nicholas was much more hesitant than Azotreh, who simply walked along the flesh. Nicholas knew the flesh wouldn't do anything, but it was still nasty to walk on what heavily reminded him of a massive still-beating heart.
The doors of the blue obelisk slid open, and they stepped through onto similar cold stone as before the flesh. The inside was much darker than the outside, with a kind of blue fog hanging over the entire room like a wet blanket. Even so, the pair could see fine, as once they stepped into the room, lights all over the walls suddenly lit up like bright blue stars. They made spiralling lines up to the ceiling, where a single vast eye stared down at them. The eye had one central pure black iris, with four dots circling it. Black and red, green, blue, and the final a mix of red, black, blue, and white. It seemed to follow them both simultaneously as they sat around a table identical to the one in the white obelisk of their soul.
No system windows appeared before them as they sat. Not their status sheet, nor a vision of the outside through the eyes of their prime avatar. There was, however, a slight movement from the eye in the ceiling. It twitched slightly, and before both of their faces, they found both a view of the core from above and one of what the nexus saw. The stairway up was gorgeous from above, and the view from up here showed them one thing they missed. Three smaller platforms in the ocean, just below the surface of the glimmering water.
The vision of the nexus was instead of a meditating orc and a dozen small salamanders just standing around listlessly. It was creepy to look at a bunch of wild animals not even twitching a muscle, or even visibly breathing.
Just as suddenly as the vision started, it stopped when Nicholas looked away from them. Azotreh was already examining the room before they stood up. They walked over to a corner and seemed to walk through the wall. No door opened to let them out. One moment they were standing there, and the next they were just gone. Nicholas hurriedly stood up and rushed after them, walking through a blue wall that only once he was inches away from it, he noticed had small golden flakes in its surface.
He stepped into the wall and reappeared in the suddenly golden obelisk of the soul realm. The flower pot was missing, but Azotreh was present, looking around with wide eyes. Before Nicholas could ask anything, Azotreh turned and walked back through where they had emerged from, walking right through Nicholas. He watched incredulously as the child walked back and forth through the solid-looking wall as if it were a doorway they were a little too excited about.
She hated being in this accursed forest. She'd already killed two filthy things. Taking on the image of the divine for nothing but mockery was a sin she could not forgive. But she was never a huge fan of forgiveness. Those who sinned, sinned. But she had to figure out what caused this mess, else she would put the Holy Scion at risk.
She was following a trail through the forest, one of extremely concentrated magic. Only someone with her baseline osmium rank and powerful sense-enhancing skills would be able to pick up on how dense the recent mana was. She had no postcognition abilities like some of those under the influence of the mad prophet, but they couldn't trust any except those truly loyal to the real divine to this mission. If the scion was somehow converted to one of the saints or prophets rather than the great lord, she was unsure what would happen.
Finally, she came upon a scene of desolation. A burned chunk of the forest, but not burned with fire. It was burned by absolute power. She could feel the higher arcane density around the impact site and feel the remnant potens of a few recently deceased. There was no trace of a survivor, except for something.
Before she investigated, she first knelt and prayed to the lord for his act of mercy upon a clear sinner of some kind. She could feel the raw divinity in the air around her, and this kind of damage was only something the saints, prophets, and the lord himself could create. Though the system called it Transcendent, she knew better. It was divine.
Wiping out a sinner with his own power was a clear sign of his mercy. So she prayed that the sinner found a new purpose in the afterworld. Then she stood and stepped into the underbrush.
Someone else was knocked back by the smiting. Four had died under it, and six had been blasted away by the force. She pitied the fallen, though their souls would live on in the afterworld; good soldiers were hard to find. Even so, she needed to locate the six missing.
She pulled a device from her pocket, something the church had from the old times. It latched onto aura signatures and pointed to them so long as they remained within a specific range of the device. Since none of the parties had returned while mentioning a divine smiting, they had to still be in this forest. If they were traitors or cowards, she would chase them down to the ends of the world. If they were filthy mimics, she would extract everything they saw and kill them. The unclean do not deserve a fair death, as the demonic scum will soon learn.
It grabbed the six aura signatures and pointed back towards the trail. She crept into the underbrush and made her way back.
Once she departed, two figures emerged from the brush across the clearing. They had deep, slightly red skin with pulsing purple veins visible near their throats. A pair of similarly red horns pointed in a straight line slightly towards the twilight sky.
They were wearing form-fitting black clothes. Stitched in were runic marks that were invisible to the naked eye, as they were just a shade darker than the fabric around them.
They moved even more silently than the nun. To think one of the obliterator's clergy would be here herself. Their luck truly was awful.
One looked up at the sky to check the time. The sun and moons still rose and set, even if they didn't change the color of the sky as they did outside the barrier. She was pulled back to focus when she found her partner pulling an object from his inventory. A black box covered in dense magic script. The royal relic they'd been given to track down whatever the humans had entered nightshade to find.
He pulled a slightly glowing core from the air as well and inserted it into the core. The pair stood no chance against a proper nun of the church, especially not one an entire tier above them. She outpowered them at least ten thousand to two, and that wasn't even mentioning her powers. So they didn't follow her. They had another mission anyway.
The little device actually did find something. Their system maps both lit up as it received and transmitted information to them. Eighteen white dots around them, and a brightly shining blue one to the west. Their previous maps of nightshade indicated that the bright signal was a half mile from a river, which was odd. They'd long discovered that water attacks were extremely effective against the little monstrosities. The one time they'd submerged one in a Water Sphere, it had split apart like most other species in non-specific acidic attacks.
Neither of them knew much about archetypes beyond their own Creature Archetype, but assumed it was their Protista Archetype working against them.
But after getting the information they wanted, they simply stood up and retreated into the treeline. Eighteen targets close enough to deal with, and a nineteenth one elsewhere.